The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 17%.
Original Research by School Decision on 112 Alc Middle School
112 ALC Middle School serves grades six through eight in Chaska, part of the Eastern Carver County Public Schools district. It is classified as an alternative school, which is the central fact a parent needs to understand before evaluating anything else. Alternative schools typically serve students whose learning needs are not well met in a conventional middle school setting—students who may have struggled academically, behaviorally, or socially in a larger, more traditional environment. That purpose shapes everything about this school, from the size and structure to what state testing data can and cannot tell you.
The school has an enrollment that is moderate for a middle school but small enough that students are unlikely to get lost. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: a little over half the students are white, about a quarter are Hispanic, and there are smaller shares of Black, Asian, multiracial, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Just under two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that is relatively high for this part of the metro area and suggests a population with above-average economic need. Staffing, special education, and English learner counts were not available.
State testing data is extremely thin and dated. The most recent results come from the 2013-14 school year, and even those cover only a handful of students. In seventh grade English language arts, the proficiency rate was low, and in eighth grade ELA it was also low. Math and science results for the same years are suppressed entirely because so few students took the tests. Participation rates were low, which is common in alternative schools where testing accommodations and student circumstances vary widely. The comparison that can be made—a whole-school proficiency index drawn from these sparse data—places 112 ALC near the bottom among school districts in Carver County. But this comparison is based on a single, very old year with very small numbers. A parent should not take that ranking as a reliable measure of current instructional quality. What it likely reflects is that the school serves students who are behind grade level, which is exactly the population an alternative school is designed to reach. The school may well be helping those students make progress, but the assessment data available here cannot show that.
No graduation rate appears because the school serves only middle grades. There is no information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or course access. Those gaps are common for alternative programs, which often have different reporting structures. A parent considering 112 ALC should visit the school, ask about academic growth measures, and understand how the school plans to transition students back to a comprehensive high school or into a longer-term alternative path.
Chaska itself is an outer-ring suburb of the Twin Cities, about a half-hour drive southwest of Minneapolis. It has a historic downtown along the Minnesota River, City Square Park, and the Hazeltine National Golf Club. The city has been growing steadily, with new subdivisions and a merger with Chaska Township behind it. Housing values are above the national median, and rents are similarly high, which means the area tilts toward families with solid incomes. The school’s student body, with its relatively high free-lunch rate, suggests that 112 ALC draws from a wider economic range than the town’s overall housing market might imply. The Eastern Carver County district did not return any information about recent curriculum changes, budget referendums, or other major shifts, so there is no record of disruption or reform to consider.
For a parent whose child is not thriving in a standard middle school, 112 ALC Middle School is a deliberate, smaller alternative. The academic data is too sparse to judge performance in any conventional sense, and the comparison with other districts is not useful for this type of school. The real question is whether the program structure and support services match the student’s specific needs. That is a conversation best had directly with the school staff.
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