Summary:
Perham, Minnesota has one elementary school in this data set: Heart of The Lake Elementary, which serves grades PK–4 and enrolls 578 students in the Perham-Dent Public School District. Because it is the only elementary school in the city, there are no within-city school-to-school comparisons to make; the most useful reference points are its district and the state. The school reports a 41% free/reduced lunch rate and a 14.3 student-teacher ratio in 2024–2025, and its district ranks 74 of 458 in Minnesota, at the 84th percentile with 4 stars.
Math is the school’s clearest academic strength. In 2025–2026, 63.1% of all grades were proficient in Math, well above the district’s 49.3% and the state’s 44.9%. Third-grade Math reached 69.7% versus 57.9% statewide, and even 4th-grade Math, 56.6%, edged past the state’s 55.2%. Reading is more mixed: overall proficiency was 48.2%, which is 4.5 points below the district and slightly below the state’s 48.6%. Third-grade Reading was 58.2% against 46.8% statewide, but 4th-grade Reading dropped to 38.2% — 10.6 points below the state and 20.0 points below the school’s own 3rd-grade result, making it the clearest target for improvement. Both subjects improved year over year (Math +2.83 points, Reading +2.08 points) while district reading declined.
The school’s ranking trajectory is strongly positive. It rose from 448th of 881 schools (49th percentile, 2 stars) in 2023–2024 to 318th of 869 (63rd percentile, 3 stars) in 2025–2026, a gain of 130 rank positions and 14 percentile points. The district still ranks higher overall, at the 84th percentile with 4 stars, largely because district Reading (52.7%) outpaces the school’s (48.2%) even though the school’s Math (63.1%) far exceeds the district’s (49.3%). In short, this is a school with strong, improving math results and a reading challenge concentrated in 4th grade.
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