Excell Academy Charter, Brooklyn Park MN

Original Research by School Decision on Excell Academy Charter

Excell Academy Charter is a public charter school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Brooklyn Park, a large suburban city in northern Hennepin County. It operates as its own single-school district under a charter contract with the state of Minnesota. The school enrolls a moderate-sized student body for a PK-8 campus, serving families across the grade span. Because the school stops at eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report; students who leave after eighth grade would move to a different school for their high school years.

Brooklyn Park itself is a car-oriented suburban environment with no traditional walkable downtown core. The city sits on the west bank of the Mississippi River and is served by several major highways. It is home to three college campuses and numerous parks and trails, but its residential and commercial areas are spread out. The city has seen a modest population decline in recent years, and housing values sit near the middle of the national range for a suburb of its size. Brooklyn Park is covered by multiple school districts, and Excell Academy Charter is one of several school options families may consider.

The student body is overwhelmingly made up of students who identify as Black, with very small numbers of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high-poverty population. Data on the share of students with individualized education plans or English learner status was not available in the record, so families who need to know about those support structures should ask the school directly.

State testing results for the most recent school year show proficiency rates that fall well below the midpoint for districts in Hennepin County. In math, the share of students meeting state standards ranged from about a quarter in third grade to very low single-digit levels in fifth and sixth grades; by seventh and eighth grades, about one in ten students scored proficient. In English language arts, proficiency rates were in the mid-teens to mid-twenties depending on grade, with the strongest showing in seventh grade. Science proficiency was in the low single digits for both fifth and eighth grades. When all tested subjects and grades are combined, the school lands in the bottom quartile among Hennepin County districts for overall proficiency. A parent considering this school may want to look into the academic support and interventions the school provides, especially given the gap between current performance and state standards.

On the operational side, the Minnesota Department of Education has awarded Excell Academy "High Quality Charter School" status since 2020, a designation that signals sustained quality in academics and operations to prospective families. In spring 2024, the school secured a renewed five-year charter contract through fiscal year 2029, which provides continuity for enrolled families. No information was available about extracurricular programs, course offerings beyond the core curriculum, staffing ratios, discipline data, or attendance patterns, so those are gaps a prospective parent would need to fill by visiting or contacting the school.

This school fits a family seeking a charter option in the Brooklyn Park area for elementary and middle grades, serving a predominantly Black student population with high economic need. But the low academic proficiency numbers relative to other schools in the county are a significant factor to weigh. A family would want to understand the school's approach to instruction and how it plans to raise performance, and also to consider what high school options are available for their child after eighth grade, since this school does not provide that continuation.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 4%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 64%

School 4% · District 4%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 726%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Science

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 5%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 4%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolEXCELL ACADEMY CHARTER, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income17%Higher-income30%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income17%Higher-income50%33 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income4%Higher-income0%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income9%Higher-income20%11 pp gap