Moorhead Area Public Schools

Moorhead Area Public Schools is a mid-sized Minnesota district serving roughly 7,300 students across 10 schools — five elementary schools (K–4), one middle school (grades 5–8), two high school settings, and two alternative programs — and it ranks 215th of 458 Minnesota districts, at the 53rd percentile with 3 stars. Enrollment is heavily concentrated: Horizon Middle School (2,158) and Moorhead High School (2,122) together hold about 59% of all students. District-wide, proficiency trails the state in math (38.4 vs. 44.9), reading (45.5 vs. 48.6), and science (19.7 vs. 25.5), with science the widest gap.

Elementary performance varies a great deal. Probstfield Elementary is the standout, at the 86th percentile with 4 stars, math 71.8 and reading 62.1 — far above both district and state — and the lowest free/reduced-lunch rate at 23.1%. Dorothy Dodds Elementary School has improved the most, climbing from the 33rd to the 55th percentile and from 2 to 3 stars, with math 55.7 and reading 47.9. S.G. Reinertsen Elementary is consistently solid at the 57th percentile with 3 stars (math 55.9, reading 49.2). At the other end, Ellen Hopkins Elementary sits at the 33rd percentile with 2 stars (math 45.1, reading 39.8), and Robert Asp Elementary is lowest at the 27th percentile with 1 star (math 39.8, reading 37.8), despite a lower poverty rate than Ellen Hopkins.

Among the large schools, Horizon Middle is mid-ranked (51st percentile, 3 stars) with math 33.4, reading 47.0, and science 18.3, including 8th-grade science at 11.2. Moorhead High School has declined from the 61st to the 44th percentile and now holds 2 stars, with math 29.9, reading 39.4, and science 23.7; its graduation rate is 83.6% and dropout 7.8%, better than the district (77.9% / 10.2%) but behind the state (84.9% / 4.2%). The alternative settings are small and specialized: Moorhead Alternative Learning Center (138 students) posts 3.1 math, 46.5% graduation, and 23.8% dropout; West Central Academy-S shows math 0, reading 16.7, and 16.0% graduation; and West Central Academy-N (16 students) has all test scores suppressed, so it cannot be meaningfully compared.