Summary:
Pipestone, Minnesota has one public middle school, Pipestone Middle, which serves grades 6–8 with 244 students as part of the Pipestone Area School District. The school has a student/teacher ratio of 14.2 and a free/reduced lunch rate of 40.98% for 2024–2025, suggesting a substantial economically disadvantaged student population. The district ranks 378th of 458 Minnesota districts, in the 17th percentile with 1 star.
Pipestone Middle’s academic results are low across all tested subjects. In 2025–2026, only 14.6% of students were proficient in math, versus 24.9% in the district and 44.9% statewide. Reading proficiency was 30.1%, compared with 33.8% in the district and 48.6% statewide. Science was the most severe weakness: just 3% proficient, versus 13.1% in the district and 25.5% statewide. The school’s rank fell from 385th of 545 (29th percentile) in 2023–2024 to 438th of 519 (16th percentile) in 2024–2025, then 460th of 546 (16th percentile) in 2025–2026, earning 1 star each year. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, math slipped from 16.17% to 14.6%, reading was nearly flat at 29.79% to 30.1%, and science dropped from 6.9% to 3%.
Grade-level patterns show reading and math proficiency declining from 6th to 8th grade. Reading falls from 42.9% in 6th grade to 25.3% in 7th and 19.4% in 8th; math falls from 20.2% to 12% to 10.4%. The 6th-grade reading score matches the district but is still 10.5 percentage points below the state’s 53.4%. Because Pipestone Middle is the only middle school in the city data, families have no in-city public middle-school alternative. Overall, the school shows low proficiency, especially in science, and declining results across grades, with 6th-grade reading as its clearest relative strength.
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