Academias La Paz

Academias La Paz is a small Minnesota district serving 568 students across three schools that together cover grades PK–12: Academia Cesar Chavez Elementary (PK–5, 336 students), Academia Cesar Chavez Middle School (6–8, 149 students), and El Colegio High School (9–12, 83 students). All three schools and the district itself have 0 stars and rank near the very bottom of the state — the district sits at the 1st percentile. Economic need is very high everywhere: 88.69% of elementary students, 90.6% of middle school students, and 80.72% of high school students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Compared with each other, the middle school has the strongest academics. Its all-grades reading proficiency of 11.3% is the best reading result in the district, and its 8th grade reading score of 23.3% is the highest single grade-level result — though still far below the state's 50.0% average for that grade. The elementary school, the largest of the three, leads in math (7.4%) and science (7.3%) and improved in all three subjects from the prior year, with math rising from 1.99% to 7.4%. The high school has the weakest test scores — 0% in all-grades math and science — but the most encouraging non-test outcomes, with a 74.0% graduation rate and a 3.7% dropout rate that is actually below the state's 4.2%.

Every school performs far below Minnesota averages of 44.9% in math, 48.6% in reading, and 25.5% in science. Gaps are largest at the high school, where math is 44.9 points behind the state. Notably, poverty levels do not line up neatly with results: the middle school has the highest free-lunch rate yet the best reading scores, while the high school has the lowest rate and the weakest math and science. Student-teacher ratios are not reported for any school. Overall, this is a district facing systemic academic challenges rather than isolated weakness in one school or subject.