Montevideo Public School District

Montevideo Public School District serves roughly 1,338 students across four schools — two elementaries (Ramsey Elementary for grades K–2 and Sanford Elementary School for grades 1–4), one middle school for grades 5–8, and one high school for grades 9–12 — and the district itself ranks 244 of 458 in Minnesota, placing it at the 47th percentile with 2 stars.

Sanford Elementary School is the clearest current academic standout, with 2025–2026 proficiency of 47.6% in Math and 49.1% in Reading, beating both the district (37.0 and 43.9) and the state (44.9 and 48.6); its 4th-grade Reading score of 55.7% is especially strong against the state's 48.8%, and its rank percentile has climbed steadily from 38 to 42 to 47. Montevideo Senior High stands out for completion outcomes — a 93.1% graduation rate versus the state's 84.9% and a 3.4% dropout rate versus 4.2% — and its Science score of 31.9% tops both district and state, but Reading is a major weak spot at 30.5%, far below the district and state, and its rank percentile fell from 79th to 66th to 48th as stars dropped from 4 to 2. Montevideo Middle is mixed: 5th-grade Reading (56.3%) beats the state's 54.5% and Science improved from 13.85% to 20.4%, but overall Math is low at 30.8% and its rank percentile slipped from 55 to 53 to 44.

A few patterns are worth knowing. Poverty indicators do not map neatly onto performance: the high school has the lowest free/reduced-lunch rate (47.79%) but the lowest Reading score, while Sanford has a higher rate (54.87%) yet outperforms both the high school and the state. Student/teacher ratios rise with grade level, from 12.8 at Ramsey to 15.3 at Sanford, 16.3 at the middle school, and 17.2 at the high school. Ramsey Elementary has no current MCA test scores, likely because it serves K–2; that absence should not be read as a weakness. Its notable signals are the district's lowest student/teacher ratio and highest free/reduced-lunch rate. Overall, Montevideo Public School District sits mid-pack statewide, with Sanford the strongest academic bright spot, the high school's graduation rate the strongest completion signal, and high school Reading plus middle school Math and Science the clearest concerns.