Badger Public School District

Badger Public School District is a small Minnesota district serving 223 students across two schools — Badger Elementary (PK–6, 124 students) and Badger Secondary (7–12, 99 students) — both housed at the same address, suggesting a compact shared campus typical of a rural community.

Reading is the district's clearest strength, with both schools beating the state in 2025–2026: Badger Elementary at 52.2% and Badger Secondary at 53.2%, versus 48.6% statewide. District reading rose 6.45 points year-over-year while the state slipped slightly. Science is also above state at both schools. Math, however, is the district-wide weakness, with both schools below state (district 35.8% vs. state 44.9%). Elementary math is especially concerning, sliding from near state level in 3rd grade (57.1%) to 30%, 22.2%, and 20% in grades 4, 5, and 6. Badger Secondary is the stronger school overall — 8th graders scored 70% in math and 80% in reading, far above state, and the graduation rate of 90% beats the state's 84.9% — but its dropout rate of 10% is more than double the state's 4.2%, and its rank percentile fell from 80 to 60 over two years, with stars dropping from 4 to 3.

Both schools serve a majority economically disadvantaged population (about 56.5% free/reduced lunch district-wide) and have small class sizes (12.4 and 10.3 students per teacher). Badger Elementary ranks in the 46th percentile with 2 stars, and Badger Secondary in the 60th percentile with 3 stars. Because enrollment is so small, single-grade percentages can swing widely from year to year, so district-wide trends are more reliable than any one grade-level result.