Isle Elementary, Isle MN - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Isle Elementary

Isle Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, and it is the only elementary school in the Isle Public School District. The school sits in the small lakeside city of Isle, on the southeastern shore of Mille Lacs Lake, a community that markets itself around fishing and lake tourism. The built environment is low-density and car-dependent, with civic life clustered along a compact Main Street. The school is integrated into this downtown area rather than isolated on a separate campus, and families can reach parks, the library, and the local clinic without a long drive.

Three out of four students at Isle Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that signals a high level of economic need in the community. The student body is predominantly white, with a notable American Indian presence as well. Enrollment runs steadily through each elementary grade, and the school does not serve beyond sixth grade, so there is no graduation rate to examine.

State testing data is available for the most recent school year across math, reading, and science, though these results come from a single year and should be interpreted with that limitation in mind. In math, proficiency rates varied considerably by grade level, with third and sixth graders scoring at a solid level, fourth and fifth graders lower. In reading, the pattern was similar: sixth graders posted a stronger result, third and fifth graders were around the midpoint, and fourth graders were lower. Science results, available for fifth grade only, were well below the other subjects. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, places it in the top quartile among the four districts in Mille Lacs County. That is a strong relative position, but the underlying picture is uneven, and a parent may want to look into how the school supports students in subjects and grades where results dipped.

The district brief showed little publicly reported change of lasting impact, so this narrative cannot speak to any recent shifts in leadership, programming, or facilities. The school itself is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and Title I status was not provided. No information was available on discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or course access, all of which a family might want to ask about directly.

For housing context, home values in the area are below the state average, and the local economy includes manufacturing, a grocery store, light industry, and the school district itself as notable employers. Isle has seen slow but steady population growth, and an industrial park south of town suggests room for further development, though no major new housing developments were identified in the research.

Isle Elementary is a small-town school serving a high-need student population. Its testing profile is mixed, with stronger relative standing in the county but notable soft spots by grade and subject. A family considering this school should inquire about academic support for the grades where proficiency was lower and about the broader student experience, given that several key measures are simply not available in this data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 35 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolISLE 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-income55%16 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income58%38 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income50%0 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income50%Higher-income82%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income67%42 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income25%18 pp gap