Summary:
Blue Earth, Minnesota is home to three public schools serving about 1,056 students across the Blue Earth Area School District: one elementary school for pre-K through grade 5, one middle school for grades 6–7, and one secondary school for grades 8–12. The district ranks 220 of 458 Minnesota districts, placing it in the 52nd percentile with 3 stars, and free/reduced lunch rates are nearly identical across all three buildings (about 50–53%), so poverty levels do not explain the differences in results.
The strongest performer is Blue Earth Area Secondary, which ranks 141 of 473 schools (70th percentile, 4 stars) and has climbed from the 49th to the 70th percentile in three years. Its graduation rate is 93.3% versus the state's 84.9%, its dropout rate is 1.3% versus 4.2%, and its science results (35.9% all-grade, 55.4% End-of-Course) beat the state, though math (34.6%) and reading (40.7%) remain below state averages. Blue Earth Area Elementary is the strongest for core subjects, with math at 46.4% and reading at 49.2% — both above the state — but science is only 15.1%, and proficiency drops sharply by grade, from 72.1% in 3rd-grade math to 20.0% in 5th grade.
Blue Earth Area Middle is the clearest area of concern: 31st percentile, 2 stars, math at 24.1%, and reading at 36.9% (down from 44.59% the prior year), with a rank trend that has slipped rather than improved. Notably, it has the lowest student-teacher ratio in the city at 11.4 but the weakest outcomes, while the secondary school has the highest ratio (17.5) and the strongest overall results — a reminder that staffing ratios alone do not determine performance. Families comparing these schools should also note that grade 8 sits in the secondary building, not the middle school.
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