Duluth Public Schools Academy

Duluth Public Schools Academy is a small Minnesota district made up of two elementary schools — North Star Academy, which serves PK–8, and Raleigh Primary/Elementary Academy, which serves PK–6 — with both schools currently rated 1 star and the district ranked 343 of 458 Minnesota schools at the 25th percentile.

North Star Academy is the larger school, with 572 students versus 208, and it holds the better current rank, 613 of 869 compared with Raleigh Primary/Elementary Academy's 659 of 869. The two schools have opposite relative strengths: North Star is above the district in all-grade math (29.8% vs. 29.2%) and reading (39.9% vs. 39.5%) but below in science (15.5% vs. 16.4%), while Raleigh is below the district in math (27.0%) and reading (38.0%) but above in science (20.8%). Raleigh's clearest bright spot is 6th grade reading at 58.3%, above both the district's 40.5% and the state's 53.4% — the only grade-level result here that beats both. North Star's strengths show up in the early grades, with 3rd grade math at 54.9% and 3rd grade reading at 45.1%, both comfortably above the district.

Both schools sit below the state average in every all-grade subject, with math gaps of 15.1 points for North Star and 17.9 points for Raleigh. Grade-level results are uneven: Raleigh's 6th grade math is 0% and North Star's 5th grade math is just 13.0%. Raleigh's rank has fallen three years running (588 → 623 → 659, 33rd to 24th percentile), while North Star peaked at 577 of 872 with 2 stars in 2024-25 before slipping to 613 of 869 and 1 star. Science moved in opposite directions, with North Star dropping from 22.88% to 15.5% and Raleigh rising from 13.04% to 20.8%. Because North Star serves PK–8 and Raleigh PK–6, all-grade comparisons are not perfectly apples-to-apples, and with similar free/reduced lunch rates around 50–51%, simple resourcing differences do not explain the results.