Wrenshall Elementary, Wrenshall MN

Original Research by School Decision on Wrenshall Elementary

Wrenshall Elementary serves about 160 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Wrenshall Public School District, a small, rural district in Carlton County. The school sits on Pioneer Drive, set apart from the modest commercial strip on Broadway, in a village that numbers fewer than a thousand residents. The broader community, originally a company town for a brickyard that closed decades ago, has a quiet, residential character. Most working adults commute to nearby Cloquet or Duluth, and the school itself is one of the larger local employers.

The student body is predominantly white. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is a regular public school, not a charter. It serves only elementary and middle grades, so there is no high school graduation rate to report.

State testing data is available for reading, math, and science. In math, proficiency rates vary noticeably by grade level. Third graders posted a rate well above half, and fourth graders also performed in that range. Fifth and sixth graders, however, showed rates that were considerably lower, in the range of a quarter of students meeting the standard. In reading, the picture is more mixed across grades. Third grade reading proficiency was around a quarter of students. Fourth grade was just above a third. Fifth grade reading was stronger, with roughly two-thirds of students meeting the bar, and sixth grade reading was about half. Only fifth graders take the state science test, and that group posted a rate around a fifth of students proficient. Combining all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint among districts in Carlton County. A parent may want to ask the school about the drop in math proficiency between the primary grades and the upper elementary grades, and about the science results.

The district does not appear to have made major recent changes that would be visible to parents, such as a referendum, boundary shift, or curriculum overhaul. Publicly reported data notes a capital outlay that could reflect a construction project, but no specific parent-relevant change was confirmed.

Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared to the broader Duluth metro region. The village’s population has been essentially flat, with no identified development pipeline or growth pressure. The combination of a stable, small enrollment, a rural setting with limited commercial services, and test results that vary by grade suggests a school that a parent would want to investigate closely grade by grade, particularly around the transition to middle school. Civic anchors in the community are the school itself, the city hall and fire hall, and nearby Jay Cooke State Park. There is no public library or transit system within Wrenshall.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 27%

even with state median

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 3 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Science

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolWRENSHALL 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 5Lower-income69%Higher-income60%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income62%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income8%Higher-income46%38 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income17%Higher-income36%19 pp gap