Summary:
Chisholm, Minnesota, a small Iron Range community, is served by the Chisholm Public School District, which includes three public schools spanning prekindergarten through 12th grade: Vaughan-Steffensrud Elementary (PK–3, 207 students), Chisholm Elementary (grades 4–6, 142 students), and Chisholm Secondary (grades 7–12, 291 students), for a total enrollment of 640. Chisholm Secondary is the largest, holding 45.5% of the district's students, followed by Vaughan-Steffensrud at 32.3% and Chisholm Elementary at 22.2%.
Vaughan-Steffensrud posts the strongest results, with 50% of students proficient in math — above the state's 44.9% and more than double the district's 22.8% — and 45.5% in reading, just 3.1 percentage points below the state. This comes despite the highest free/reduced lunch rate in the group, 64.73%, and the lowest student/teacher ratio, 12.6. Chisholm Elementary is the middle performer: science is its standout at 27.7%, above both the district's 19.2% and the state's 25.5%, and its reading of 44% tops the district though not the state, while math (26.7%) remains well below the state's 44.9%. Chisholm Secondary trails in every subject — math 11.7%, reading 18.4%, science 13.7% — below both district and state.
Several patterns stand out for parents. Proficiency falls sharply as students move into grades 7–12, and Chisholm Secondary's all-grades reading dropped from 36.17% to 18.4% year over year. Its dropout rate is 8.1% versus the state's 4.2%, its graduation rate is 83.6% versus 84.9%, and its ranking sits at 360 of 473 Minnesota high schools — 24th percentile, 1 star — after 40th percentile and 2 stars in 2023–2024. Because the secondary school enrolls nearly half the district's students, its results weigh heavily on district averages, which are below state in all three subjects.
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