Summary
Chisholm Secondary is a grades 7–12 school in Chisholm, Minnesota, in St. Louis County’s Iron Range, serving 291 students as the only secondary campus in the Chisholm Public School District. On SchoolDigger’s 2025-26 rankings it sits at the 24th percentile among Minnesota secondary schools, with 1 star, after two years of slipping back toward its 2015-16 and 2016-17 levels; the school has spent most of the past decade in the bottom third statewide, with a high-water mark of the 56th percentile in 2018-19 and a recent best of the 40th in 2023-24.
Academically, Chisholm’s 2025-26 MCA proficiency is at the bottom of its regional peer group: 11.7% in math, 18.4% in reading, and 13.7% in science, below every other comprehensive high school in the comparison set. The gaps are especially large in the middle grades, such as 6.7% in 8th grade math, 9.6% in 7th grade reading, and 4.7% in 8th grade science. For comparison, Hibbing High posts 37.9% math and 41.0% reading, Mountain Iron-Buhl Secondary reaches 43.5% reading, and Nashwauk Secondary—with nearly identical free/reduced-lunch demographics—posts 33.7% math and 34.3% reading. Math and science have declined two years in a row, and reading fell sharply to 18.4% in 2025-26 after reaching 36.2% the year before. One bright spot: the high school End-of-Course science result is 26.7%, only about 8 points below the state.
Graduation tells a split story: Chisholm’s 83.6% graduation rate is essentially at the state average and close to Hibbing High, but its 8.1% dropout rate is nearly double the state’s 4.2% and higher than most comprehensive peers. The 2024-25 free/reduced-lunch share is 51.55%, up for the third year, while the student-teacher ratio is a favorable 13.6. Notably, the Chisholm Public School District’s overall proficiency is higher than the secondary school’s, suggesting the elementary grades are outperforming grades 7–12. The most encouraging signs are that elementary performance, the strong End-of-Course science result, and the 2021-22 year when graduation was 90.2% and dropout was 2.4%; the challenge is making that level consistent as students move through middle and high school.
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