High Schools in Cambridge-Isanti Public School District

The Cambridge-Isanti Public School District in Minnesota operates 5 high schools serving grades 9-12, including the largest school, Cambridge-Isanti High School, as well as several smaller, specialized schools like Cambridge-Isanti OLL Secondary 6-12, Riverside Academy, Riverside Academy IS, and Moving Forward.

Cambridge-Isanti High School stands out as the top performer in the district, with the highest statewide ranking, better-than-average graduation and dropout rates, and reasonably strong academic proficiency scores, though still below state averages. In contrast, the smaller specialized schools like Cambridge-Isanti OLL Secondary 6-12 and Riverside Academy struggle with much lower academic performance, as measured by test scores, despite maintaining similar graduation and dropout rates as the district and state averages.

The data suggests that socioeconomic factors, such as high rates of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, may be contributing to the academic performance disparities between the schools. Additionally, staffing and resource challenges, as indicated by the extremely high student-teacher ratios at some of the smaller schools, could also be hindering their ability to provide the same level of academic support and rigor as the larger, more established Cambridge-Isanti High School. Addressing these disparities and providing targeted support to the lower-performing schools could be an important focus for the Cambridge-Isanti Public School District moving forward.