Summary
Kennedy High School is a grades 9–12 comprehensive high school in Bloomington, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb, serving 1,578 students at 9701 Nicollet Ave S as one of two comprehensive high schools in Bloomington Public Schools.
The school currently ranks 387th of 473 ranked Minnesota high schools — 18th percentile, 1 star — below Bloomington Public Schools overall at 46th percentile, 2 stars. The clearest comparison is Jefferson High School, 2.75 miles away in the same district and similar in size (1,684 students). That school is 56th percentile, 3 stars, with math proficiency of 51.6% vs. the school’s 19.7%, reading of 42.2% vs. 19.1%, and graduation of 89.1% vs. 77.1%. The school’s student–teacher ratio is better (17.7 vs. 22.7), so staffing does not explain the gap. Poverty context is large: 61.3% free/reduced lunch vs. 28.0% at the comparison school. Against Burnsville High School, the school leads in math (19.7% vs. 17.8%) and science (16.8% vs. 14.1%) but trails in reading (19.1% vs. 31.8%). Science is the school’s relative bright spot, only 3.1 points below its district.
The long-run trend is a decade-long slide, from 47th percentile in 2015–16 to 18th now, accelerating in the last three years. Reading has fallen furthest — roughly halved since 2022–23 to 19.1% — and is now below math, reversing district and state patterns. Every subject declined in the most recent year. The dropout rate has risen every year since 2020–21 to 8.5%, double the state, while graduation stays flat around 77–80%; that combination suggests more students leaving without a diploma. The largest subgroup, low-income students at about 61% of enrollment, performs at the 14th percentile and has been flat there for three years. Special education students rank higher (40th percentile), showing the school retains instructional capacity. The main leverage points are reading, the dropout pipeline, and the low-income subgroup. Some alternative-program figures are state-suppressed and unknown, not zero; small subgroup counts should be read cautiously.
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