Summary
Canby Elementary is a PK–6 school serving 304 students in Canby, MN, a rural western Minnesota community where the local elementary options are small and the surrounding schools perform unusually well. It is part of the Canby Public School District, which ranks 257th of 458 Minnesota districts (44th percentile, 2 stars). The school itself ranks 293rd of 869 Minnesota elementary schools for 2025–2026 — 66th percentile, 3 stars — a middle-of-the-pack statewide position but a notable decline from its historical peak. Canby was a 5-star, 91st–92nd percentile school in 2015–16, 2016–17, and 2018–19, slipped to 4 stars in the early 2020s, and has held 3 stars for the last three years.
In Math and Reading, Canby beats both the state and its own district — 55.8% and 58.3% proficient, versus 44.9% and 48.6% statewide — but it trails every nearby school in both subjects: Stevens Elementary (68.7 and 68.9), Minneota Elementary (72.7 and 69.6), Lincoln Elementary - Ivanhoe (59.5 and 62.2), and Hendricks Elementary (77.1 and 71.4). Science is the clearest weakness: Canby's 20.6% is below the state's 25.5% and below Stevens (31.6), Minneota (30.3), and Hendricks (50.0). Grade-level results show a strong start and a sharp upper-grade drop — 3rd grade Math is 87.2%, above the state and most neighbors, but 5th grade Math falls to 32.4% and 6th grade Math to 32.6%, both below state averages.
Canby's standout strength is its low-SES effectiveness rank — 93rd percentile, 5 stars, up from 86th and 74th in prior years. Its effectiveness ranking for White students is 45th percentile (2 stars), below its overall school rank; female students rank 56th percentile and male students 71st. Science was previously a strength, at roughly 70% in 2022–23 and 2023–24, before dropping to about 20%. Canby is also the largest elementary in this comparison group (304 students) with the highest student–teacher ratio (13.0), and the last three rankings — 313th, 306th, 293rd — show slight improvement. Bottom line: a decent, above-state school with a standout low-SES subgroup, whose main opportunities are rebuilding Science and upper-grade Math.
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