Staples-Motley School District

The Staples-Motley School District in Minnesota serves roughly 901 students across three schools — Staples-Motley Elementary for grades PK–4, Staples-Motley Middle School for grades 5–8, and Staples-Motley Senior High for grades 9–12. As a district, it ranks 237th of 458 in Minnesota, placing it in the 48th percentile with 2 stars, right around the state median. Within the district, the middle school (58th percentile, 3 stars) and the high school (50th percentile, 3 stars) currently rank above the elementary school (34th percentile, 2 stars).

The three schools are strong in very different places. The high school has the district's best completion outcomes — a 94.2% graduation rate versus 84.9% statewide and a 2.9% dropout rate versus 4.2% — and its science proficiency of 32.9% beats the state's 25.5%. But high school math is only 25%, nearly 20 points below the state, and its rank has slid from the 65th to the 50th percentile. The elementary school is the math standout at 52.5%, above the state's 44.9%, and has the lowest student-teacher ratio in the district at 13.1; its reading proficiency of 34.4%, however, trails the state's 48.6%. The middle school is the most improved, climbing from the 47th to the 58th percentile, with 8th grade math at 50.6% and 6th grade reading at 56.1% above state levels, yet its science is just 12.6%.

For families, the strengths worth preserving are the high school's graduation, dropout, and science results, the elementary school's math, and the middle school's 8th grade math and 6th grade reading. The clearest areas to watch are high school math, elementary reading, and middle school science, each well below state levels. Recent year-over-year trends are mixed: elementary math rose from 46.3% to 52.5%, while the high school declined in math, reading, and science, and middle school reading and science also fell.