Summary:
North Lakes Academy Elementary is the only elementary school in the North Lakes Academy district, a small K–6 school with 220 students in Forest Lake, MN, where the district ranks 296 of 458 in Minnesota at the 35th percentile with 2 stars.
Academically, the school shows a genuine bright spot in 4th grade: Math proficiency is 60.9%, about 5.7 points above the state's 55.2%, and 4th grade Reading (47.8%) nearly matches the state's 48.8%. Math also beats the district overall in both years (42.03% vs 30.43% in 2024–25 and 33.3% vs 26.2% in 2025–26), and Science improved from 11.11% to 17.6%. Beyond that, results are weaker. All-grade Math fell to 33.3%, which is 11.6 points below the state, and Reading slipped from 4.66 points above the district to 2.6 points below it, ending 10.5 points behind the state. Science remains the lowest subject at 17.6%, under both the district's 22.5% and the state's 25.5%. Upper grades lag most: 6th grade Reading is 27.5 points below state, 6th grade Math 21.0 points below, and 5th grade Math 21.9 points below.
Ranking trends reinforce this picture. The school fell from 506 of 881 (43rd percentile, 2 stars) in 2023–24 to 625 of 869 (28th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–26 — a 15-point percentile drop over two years. With a 46.36% free/reduced lunch rate, a 13.6 student-teacher ratio, and only 220 students, grade-level percentages can swing noticeably from year to year, so families should watch whether the Science gain and 4th grade Math strength hold.
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