Summary:
Cambridge, Minnesota is served by 10 schools within the Cambridge-Isanti Public School District, ranging from elementary grades through high school plus alternative and specialized programs, with total enrollment of 3,439 students. The district ranks 228th of 458 in Minnesota — the 50th percentile with a 3-star rating — and about 93.7% of all students attend just four core schools: Cambridge-Isanti High School (1,582 students), Cambridge Middle School (607), Cambridge Intermediate School (536), and Cambridge Primary School (498). The remaining six are small programs totaling just 216 students.
The academic bright spot is Cambridge Middle School, which has held a 4-star rating for three straight years and beats both district and state averages in math (49.3%) and reading (53.6%). Cambridge Intermediate School is especially strong in math at 55.4%, above the district's 43.2% and the state's 44.9%, and also leads district and state in science. Cambridge-Isanti High School is more mixed: math (24%) and reading (33.1%) fall below district and state, but science (30.7%) exceeds both, and its 85.1% graduation rate tops the district and edges past the state.
On the other end, Riverside Academy is the most challenged school in the data, with a 32.2% graduation rate, 25.8% dropout rate, and 0% math proficiency, though its 40-student enrollment means results swing widely. Notably, Riverside Academy IS shows a very different profile — 83.3% graduation and 0.0% dropout — suggesting different student populations. Poverty is concentrated in the smaller programs, with free/reduced lunch rates above 58% at Moving Forward, Brookside Academy, and both Riverside schools, versus 30.34% at the high school. Many test values for small schools are suppressed by the state and should be treated as unknown rather than as evidence of weakness.
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