The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Distance Learning Academy Secondary
The Distance Learning Academy Secondary is a tuition-free, public online school serving students in grades six through twelve from the North Branch Area Public Schools district. It is not a charter school and it is not a magnet school. The academy is designed for families who choose a fully remote academic pathway rather than attending a traditional brick-and-mortar school. The school is a regular public school, which signals that it is a standard district-run program, not a special-purpose or alternative school focused on discipline recovery or credit recovery, though its name may lead some to wonder. Because its model is distance learning, the typical benchmarks used to evaluate in-person schools need to be read with that in mind.
The school's enrollment is small, and it is heavily concentrated at the upper end of the grade span. The twelfth grade is by far the largest grade level, while the middle school grades have very few students. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education identification and English learner status was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about its support for those populations.
State testing results are limited and should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of students tested. In math, for grades six through eight, the proficiency rates were reported at zero percent. In English language arts for those same grades, the proficiency rate was reported at a modest level. Science testing for eighth grade had its results suppressed due to a very small group of test-takers, so no reliable proficiency figure is available. Because the enrollment in each tested grade is tiny, these numbers may not give a stable picture of the program's academic effectiveness. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places the school in the bottom quartile relative to the districts in Chisago County. A parent considering this school should recognize that the testing pool is very small and may not represent the full student experience, particularly for high school students who take different assessments in later grades.
Because the school serves a distance learning population, a graduation rate was not reported in the available data. It is common for alternative or non-traditional programs to have different reporting timelines, but a parent should confirm with the school how they measure and report graduation.
Program offerings such as Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment, or career and technical education courses were not listed in the data. Since the school uses a virtual model, the course access may differ substantially from the district's in-person high school. A parent should investigate what courses and pathways are available to secondary students through the distance learning platform.
The broader community context matters for families weighing this option. North Branch is a small city in Chisago County situated at the junction of Interstate 35 and State Highway 95, roughly an hour north of Minneapolis. It has a family-friendly, small-town atmosphere with high homeownership and relatively affordable housing compared to the Twin Cities metro. The city grew steadily as a commuter community after the interstate was completed, and much of the population drives alone to work. The district itself recently passed an operating levy referendum that will provide additional annual funding for class sizes, student support services, and mental health support. The district has also implemented evidence-based literacy instruction aligned with state reading legislation, which may affect the early elementary programs in the district but is less directly relevant to the distance learning secondary students.
This school fits a family that wants a public school option outside the traditional classroom setting, for reasons that may range from scheduling flexibility, medical needs, anxiety, or a preference for home-based instruction. It is not the right fit for a family seeking a broad array of on-site extracurriculars, sports, or face-to-face social interaction as part of the school day. The academic performance data is thin and weak where it exists, and a parent should engage directly with the school to understand the curriculum, teacher interaction, pacing, and how students are supported toward graduation and postsecondary goals.
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