Lakeview Elementary, Albert Lea MN

Original Research by School Decision on Lakeview Elementary

Lakeview Elementary is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Albert Lea, Minnesota, part of the Albert Lea Public School District. The school enrolls a student body that is diverse for the region. White students make up the largest share, and roughly a quarter of students are Hispanic. Asian, Black, and multiracial students each account for smaller segments. More than half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a common indicator of household income in school data. The school does not report the share of students with an Individualized Education Program or those who are English learners, so a parent would need to ask the district for those figures directly.

Albert Lea itself is the Freeborn County seat, a community of modest size built around a chain of lakes at the junction of Interstates 35 and 90. The local economy blends health care, food processing, manufacturing, and service jobs, with Mayo Clinic Health System as a leading employer. The city’s population has been fairly stable but saw a slight decline in recent years, and the manufacturing base has diminished over time. Lakeview sits on Abbott Street in a residential area, and like most of the city outside the downtown core, daily life is car-dependent.

Academically, the data comes from the 2024-25 school year and shows a clear pattern: reading proficiency is consistently reported across grades three through five, while math proficiency declines as students move up and science scores are considerably lower. In reading, around two out of five students met the state standard in each of the three tested grades. In math, the share of students scoring proficient fell from grade three to grade four, and then dropped again in grade five. Only a small share of fifth graders were proficient in science. These results place the school’s overall proficiency index in the top quarter when compared to the other districts in Freeborn County. That relative strength means Lakeview performs above the middle of the pack locally, but the absolute numbers in math and science are areas a parent may want to explore further with the school.

No data was available on discipline, chronic absenteeism, staffing, or course access. The school does not report a grade-level breakdown of special education or English learner status, and the state testing data only covers a single year, so trends over time cannot be assessed.

The district, meanwhile, has made recent moves worth noting. Voters approved an operating levy referendum in 2022 that provides additional funding for class sizes, academic programs, and student support. The district also launched a Secondary Online Academy for grades six through twelve, giving families a fully remote option within the district for older students, though this does not directly affect elementary families.

For a family considering this school, the picture is mixed. Lakeview is a solid performer within its county on state reading tests, and the community offers the amenities of a small city with lakes and parks. But the math and science proficiency rates are soft, especially by fifth grade. A parent with a child who needs strong support in those subjects may want to ask what interventions or curriculum the school provides. The lack of publicly reported data on special education population and discipline makes it harder to evaluate the school’s support environment without a direct conversation with the principal or district office.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 51% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 41% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 24% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 37% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 30% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 45% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Science

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 19% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

This schoolALBERT LEA PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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 3Lower-income39%Higher-income50%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income32%Higher-income57%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income55%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income60%Higher-income98%38 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income59%Higher-income69%10 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income32%Higher-income66%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income42%19 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income46%Higher-income87%41 pp gap