Yellow Medicine East

Yellow Medicine East is a small, two-school Minnesota district serving about 605 students in grades PK–12, with Bert Raney Elementary School covering PK–5 (284 students) and Yellow Medicine East Secondary covering grades 6–12 (321 students); the Yellow Medicine East district ranks 299 of 458 in the state (35th percentile, 2 stars).

Reading is the district's relative strength. Both schools sit close to the state in all-grade reading — the secondary school at 45.7% and the elementary school at 47.0%, versus 48.6% statewide — and reading improved year over year at both. Math and science are the larger concerns. The secondary school's all-grade math proficiency is just 20.4%, roughly 24.5 points below the state, with 8th grade math at 16.7% (state 42.3%) and 11th grade math at 15.6% (state 35.3%). The elementary school's all-grade math (35.9%) beats the secondary school's, but its 3rd and 5th grade math and 5th grade science lag well behind state levels. Elementary science showed the biggest swing in the data, falling from 38.89% to 11.4% in a single year, though that may reflect a different tested grade cohort.

The two schools are moving in opposite directions in state rank. The secondary school climbed from the 26th to the 39th percentile and from 1 star to 2 stars, while the elementary school slipped from the 47th percentile two years ago to the 33rd percentile, even though it has the higher free/reduced lunch rate (53.17% vs. 38.01%) and the lower student-teacher ratio (11.2 vs. 12.3). The secondary school also graduates 86.2% of students with a 3.9% dropout rate, both better than the state, despite weak math and science test scores. Bright spots exist but are narrow: 4th grade math and reading at the elementary school and 7th and 10th grade reading at the secondary school all exceed state averages. The clearest priorities are secondary math, elementary science, and the elementary school's recent slide in rank and math proficiency.