Summary:
There is one elementary school located in the city of Appleton, Minnesota: Appleton-Milan Elementary, which is part of the Lac qui Parle Valley Schools district. The school serves grades PK–4, enrolls 230 students, and is located at 349 S Edquist St in Appleton. For context, 61.74% of its students qualified for free or reduced lunch in 2024–2025, and the student-teacher ratio was 13.2.
Because it is the only elementary school in the area, there are no local peers to compare it against, so the most useful comparisons are with its own district and with the state. Math is the school's relative strength: in 2025–2026, 40.5% of students met Math standards, ahead of the district's 33.5% but below the state's 44.9%. Reading is the bigger challenge. Only 30.4% of students met Reading standards, below both the district's 34.7% and the state's 48.6% — a gap of more than 18 points versus the state. Looking at individual grades in 2025–2026, third graders outperformed fourth graders in both subjects, and fourth-grade Reading was the lowest reported result at 28.6%, compared with 48.8% statewide.
Statewide, the school has ranked in the lower portion of Minnesota elementary schools for three years running, earning a 1-star rating each time: 688 of 869 in 2025–2026, 667 of 872 in 2024–2025, and 732 of 881 in 2023–2024. That recent ranking is 44 positions better than two years earlier. Encouragingly, Math proficiency rose 2.4 points year over year while Reading slipped slightly, and the school's Math gap to the state narrowed. Parents should note the overall trend is modest improvement in Math, with Reading — especially in fourth grade — the clearest area to watch.
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