The top reported proficiency rate is 9% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Centennial Area Learning Center
Centennial Area Learning Center is an alternative school within the Centennial Public School District, serving students in grades seven through twelve. The school is located in Circle Pines, a small, largely built-out suburban residential community roughly seventeen miles north of Minneapolis–St. Paul. Circle Pines was founded as a planned cooperative village, and though that model was later abandoned, the city retains a municipally-owned natural gas utility as a legacy. The city describes its character as having a small-town feel, with homes placed close together amid oak and elm fields that give a rural appearance that belies the suburban density. The district itself spans multiple cities including Circle Pines, Blaine, Lino Lakes, Centerville, and Lexington, and in recent years voters approved an operating levy referendum to support class sizes and student services, while the district also moved to full-day kindergarten at no cost.
This school is an alternative school, which means it is designed for students who may benefit from a different educational setting than a traditional comprehensive high school. The enrollment is small and concentrated in the upper grades, with the largest share of students in twelfth grade and a smaller number in eleventh and tenth grades. No students in grades seven, eight, or nine were reported enrolled. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, with a majority of white students and meaningful shares of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, along with small numbers of Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students.
State testing data was available for a single school year and only for eighth-grade students, a small group at that time. On the English language arts assessment, proficiency was low, and on the science assessment, no student scored proficient. A multi-year trend report was limited to math and showed no students proficient in the sole year of data. Because the school serves an alternative population and state testing data is sparse, these results should be understood in that context rather than compared directly to a traditional school. Overall, the school's proficiency index, calculated across tested subjects and grades, placed it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Anoka County. The school does not have the typical set of academic performance metrics, such as a graduation rate, that one would expect for a high school, and chronic absenteeism data was also unavailable.
The school environment and access data were largely absent from the available information: there was no locale classification, no discipline data, no course access information, no staffing figures, and no attendance data. Programs were not listed either. A parent considering this school would want to contact the school directly to understand what specific academic pathways, credit recovery options, career and technical education offerings, and supports are available, as well as how the school approaches social-emotional learning and postsecondary planning. The district's strategic plan emphasizes academic excellence, social-emotional learning, and fiscal stewardship, but how those priorities are implemented at the alternative school would need to be clarified.
For a family, this is a specialized setting appropriate for a student who has struggled in a larger traditional school environment. The school is small by design, which can provide more individualized attention and a tighter-knit student peer group. The housing context in Circle Pines is a stable, built-out suburb with an extensive trail system and a public campus that includes city hall, the post office, and a county library. The area has seen little population change and no major new housing developments. The broader district's recent referendum and full-day kindergarten expansion signal financial stability and investment in programming for younger students, though the alternative school's relationship to those district-wide changes is not documented. A family should investigate what kinds of students attend the learning center, what the school's approach to instruction and behavior is, and what the next steps after enrollment look like, whether that means returning to the comprehensive high school or earning a diploma at the center.
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