The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Math. The lowest is 31% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Great Oaks Academy - Grammar
Great Oaks Academy - Grammar is the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade campus of the Great Oaks Academy charter network in Farmington. The school opened in 2020 and offers a classical, liberal arts curriculum organized around the Trivium—Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric—which means the Grammar campus serves the first stage of that model, focusing on the foundational years of memorization and skill-building. The school is small, serving roughly that size of a student body for an elementary school, and its student population is overwhelmingly white, with a small share of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students combined. About a fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate well below area averages and one that places the school’s population in a notably more affluent peer context relative to many other Minnesota charter schools.
On state assessments, the school’s academic picture is mixed and strongly grade-dependent. In third-grade math, the proficiency rate landed above a simple majority, a strong result for that grade. Fourth-grade math fell somewhat below that, and by fifth grade the rate dropped further, though still above a third of students. In English language arts, the pattern was more uneven: third-grade proficiency sat near the tipping point, fourth grade landed at exactly half, and fifth grade posted the school’s best result across all tested subjects, with a clear majority of students proficient. On the fifth-grade science assessment, proficiency was considerably lower, with only a modest share of students meeting the bar. The state changed the science assessment and cut scores starting that year, so the result is not directly comparable to prior years. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school’s overall proficiency index placed it in the top quartile among districts in Dakota County, a strong relative showing for a school that opened only a few years ago.
Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data includes no figures on chronic absenteeism or staffing, so a parent seeking a fuller picture of school climate or disciplinary patterns would need to ask the school directly. The school operates as a tuition-free public charter school, so it is open to any student in the state via lottery, and its governance is independent of the Farmington public school district.
The school is located in Farmington, a fast-growing suburban city in the southern part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The city has grown significantly in recent years, with new suburban neighborhoods spreading north of the downtown core, and a third development area emerging near Empire Township. A trail along the Vermillion River connects the downtown, uptown, and Empire Township neighborhoods, and the Dakota County Fairgrounds are a major civic anchor. Home values and rents in Farmington’s zip code sit above the state median, reflecting the area’s strong housing market, and the local economy is anchored by a mix of health care, manufacturing, and finance. A proposed large data center on a former golf course has drawn legal challenges from residents over water and energy concerns, an active community issue that may affect future growth patterns.
The parent charter district, Great Oaks Academy, is expanding. For the 2025-26 school year, the school is opening a second campus in Eagan for grades six through nine, with plans to add a grade each year until it reaches a full K-12 program. That means families enrolling a child in the Grammar campus now have a path into a Logic and Rhetoric campus in the coming years, but that secondary campus is in a different city, roughly a moderate drive north. The district’s plans also include a future K-5 space in a later phase of the expansion, so the current elementary campus may eventually have a companion in the same area, though that timeline is not yet set. Families considering this school should weigh the classical education model—which is a specific pedagogical choice, not universally preferred—against the growth and expansion the network is undertaking, as well as the commute implications if the family anticipates continuing through the upper grades at the Eagan campus. The state testing data shows a school that is performing relatively well compared with its county peers, particularly in early elementary math and late elementary reading, but with a noticeable drop in fifth-grade science that a parent may want to discuss with the school to understand the curriculum and instructional approach in that subject.
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