Cass Lake-Bena Public Schools

Cass Lake-Bena Public Schools in northern Minnesota serves roughly 1,119 students across four schools — Cass Lake-Bena Elementary (PK–5, 450 students), Cass Lake-Bena Middle School (6–8, 312 students), Cass Lake-Bena Secondary (9–12, 263 students), and Cass Lake-Bena Area Learning Cntr. (7–12, 94 students). The district is ranked 425th of 458 in Minnesota, at the 7th percentile with 0 stars. Free/reduced lunch rates across the schools range from 75.67% to 85.33%, and student-teacher ratios are relatively low, between 10.1 and 11.9.

Cass Lake-Bena Elementary has the strongest overall academic profile: math 23.2%, reading 27.5%, and science 8.6%, plus the best latest rank (768th of 869, 12th percentile, 1 star) and the single highest reported proficiency in the data, 4th-grade math at 31.1%. Its rank percentile has slipped, though, from 21 to 17 to 12 over three years. Cass Lake-Bena Secondary shows relative reading strength (26.7%) and a 75.0% graduation rate, above the district's 62.2%, but very low math (2.5%) and science (4.8%) and a 12.5% dropout rate. Cass Lake-Bena Middle School posts the district's lowest math (4.6%) and science (3.3%) and sits at the 5th percentile with 0 stars. The Area Learning Cntr. is smallest, with math 10%, reading 13.3%, science 0%, a 35.2% graduation rate, an 8.8% dropout rate, and many suppressed grade-level results; those blank values are unknown, not zero.

District-wide, proficiency trails the state everywhere: math 13.7% versus 44.9%, reading 22.1% versus 48.6%, and science 5.6% versus 25.5%. Reading is the comparative bright spot for all four schools, while science and math are the deepest gaps, including Middle math at 4.6% and Secondary math at 2.5%. Performance generally falls from elementary to middle, with reading partially rebounding in high school. Year-to-year changes are mixed and should be read cautiously given small cohorts and suppressed data.