Yinghua Academy

Yinghua Academy in Minneapolis, MN is a K–8 school serving 851 students on Buchanan Street NE — the largest enrollment in its comparison group — and it operates as its own single-school Yinghua Academy district, which the state ranks #2 of 458 districts. The more telling number is its school-level rank: 11th of 869 Minnesota schools, or the 99th percentile in 2025–26. Proficiency is 88.7% in math, 76.9% in reading and 59.2% in science — roughly 2×, 1.6× and 2.3× the statewide rates of 44.9%, 48.6% and 25.5%.

Nine schools sit within about 1.7 miles. The nearest, Pillsbury Elementary (0.53 mi), posts 23.4% math and 3.4% science — a 65-point math gap and about one-seventeenth of Yinghua's science rate. Against the median of surrounding schools, Yinghua is roughly 5× higher in math (88.7% vs. ~16.7%), 3× in reading (76.9% vs. ~23.9%) and 4× in science (59.2% vs. ~13.6%). Yinghua's free/reduced-lunch rate of 16.57% is the lowest in the group, but poverty alone doesn't explain the gaps: Waite Park Elementary (29.3% FRL) and Spero Academy (31.1% FRL) sit in a similar socioeconomic band yet post 76.7% and 14.5% math. Yinghua also does this with the group's least favorable student-to-teacher ratio, 13.4.

Trends are strong. The only sub-5-star year in a decade was 2020–21 (85th percentile), and results have climbed since — all-grades math moved 77.5% → 81.8% → 84.9% → 88.7%. Special education students went from the 34th percentile (2 stars, 378th of 572) in 2023–24 to the 95th percentile (5 stars, 30th of 579) in 2025–26. Relative soft spots: 3rd-grade reading (64.5%), 6th-grade math (75.6%, still nearly double the state's 39.5%), and a volatile science path (69.8% → 42.3% → 59.2%) that partly reflects a change in the exam label. Two subgroups have only one year of data, so treat those results with caution.