The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on A.i. Jedlicka Middle School
A.I. Jedlicka Middle School sits at the center of Proctor Public School District, a single district serving the small, car-dependent city of Proctor, Minnesota, just west of Duluth. The school hosts grades six through eight as a regular public school, drawing students from Proctor itself, Duluth’s Bayview Heights neighborhood, and surrounding townships. The building sits along 9th Avenue, away from the town’s main commercial strip on U.S. Highway 2.
The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of students identifying as two or more races and very small numbers of students who are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or American Indian. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a level that positions the school in a typical range for the area. It is not a Title I school, though the data did not specify the reason. Proctor is a low-density community with average car ownership at two vehicles per household, and most residents drive alone to work. The school district operates four buildings including this middle school, and the community recently opened the St. Luke’s Sports and Event Center, affiliated with the schools, as a gathering space.
On state assessments, A.I. Jedlicka posts a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, a solid majority of sixth graders meet or exceed the state’s proficiency standard. That share drops noticeably in seventh and eighth grades, where fewer than half of students reach that bar. Math proficiency is weaker across all three grades, with the highest rate in sixth grade at roughly two in five students, declining each year to about one in three by eighth grade. Eighth-grade science results are markedly lower, with roughly one in seven students meeting the state standard. Parents reading these results should note that the state changed the science assessment starting in the 2024-25 school year, which means comparisons to prior years are not straightforward.
The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits slightly below the midpoint among the 14 St. Louis County districts with reported data. Within that cohort, the range runs from a low-performing district to a top-performing one, and A.I. Jedlicka lands on the lower side of the middle band. No chronic absenteeism data was available to round out the attendance picture, and no discipline data was reported. The state testing results are one year’s snapshot; no multi-year trend is available for math or ELA beyond a single point, since the data system provided only the most recent year’s results. A parent may want to ask the school directly how achievement has been trending in the years before this assessment year.
Special education and English learner counts were not published in the available data, so the school’s share of students receiving those supports is unknown. The district brief turned up no recent referendum, curriculum change, or property-tax shift of lasting parent relevance, suggesting a stable administrative environment in the near term.
Proctor’s population has been roughly flat to slightly declining over the past decade, and the city describes itself as ready for growth, though no major new housing developments surfaced in public records. The housing market in the zip code covering the school shows a median value above the national figure, and affordability measures indicate that owning a home is moderately more expensive than renting in this market.
The school’s academic identity is one of mixed results, with a meaningful strength in sixth-grade reading that does not carry through to the upper middle-school grades. Math and eighth-grade science stand as areas where a parent would want to understand what supports the school offers and how student progress is addressed between grades. The student environment is racially homogeneous and economically mixed, set in a community with a quiet, rural character and a rail-town history that still shapes its identity. For a family moving to the Duluth area, this is a school where the academic fit depends heavily on the child’s grade and readiness level, and where asking about intervention and enrichment options would be a natural next step.
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