Summary:
Elementary schools in this area consist of a single school: Prairie Creek Community School, a K–5 school in Northfield, Minnesota with 180 students. It is also its own district, listed as Prairie Creek Community School, so there are no other local schools in this data set to compare against. The most useful comparisons are between the school and Minnesota state averages, and between its own results from year to year.
Academically, the school performs above the state in all tested subjects. In 2025–2026, math proficiency was 53.3% versus 44.9% statewide, reading was 60.7% versus 48.6%, and science was 41.4% versus 25.5%. In 2024–2025 the margins were even wider: math 57.95% versus 45.21%, reading 67.82% versus 49.59%, and science 63.33% versus 26.15%. Grade-level results for 2025–2026 show reading strength across the board (3rd grade 63.3%, 4th grade 56.7%, 5th grade 62.1%, all above state). Math is more uneven: 3rd grade was strong at 66.7% versus 57.9% state, 5th grade was slightly above at 43.3% versus 41.9%, but 4th grade fell below state at 50% versus 55.2%. Science is tested only in 5th grade, so that score reflects one cohort.
The school has held a 4-star rating in 2023–2024, 2024–2025, and 2025–2026, though its percentile rank eased from 78 to 75 to 71. Its district rating is 4 stars, ranked 96 of 458 districts at the 79th percentile. The free/reduced lunch rate was 17.78% in 2024–2025, and the student-teacher ratio was 11.9, a favorable figure that supports personalized instruction. Families should note that scores dipped from the prior year in every subject — most sharply in science — and that with only 180 students, a single class cohort can move school-wide results noticeably.
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