Summary
Salk Middle School is a grades 6–8 school serving 638 students in Elk River, Minnesota, part of the Elk River Public School District, and for 2025–2026 it ranked 84th of 546 Minnesota middle schools — the 85th percentile, earning 4 stars.
Academically, Salk clears the state bar in all three tested subjects: 48% proficiency in math, 58.7% in reading, and 21.1% in 8th-grade science, compared with state rates of 44.9%, 48.6%, and 16.7%. Reading is the school's most reliable strength, more than 10 points above the state. Math is the clear priority: proficiency has slipped about 10.7 points over three years, and 8th-grade math (39.3%) is the only result at the school that falls below the state (42.3%). Salk outperforms its closest neighbor, Vandenberge Middle School, in every subject — math +4.8, reading +4.5, science +10.5 points — despite enrolling more low-income students. It also beats the nearby charter Spectrum Middle School in math and science, and Big Lake Middle School across the board. Rogers Middle School posts much higher math scores (70.4%), but serves far fewer low-income students, so it isn't a like-for-like comparison.
About 26.3% of Salk students come from low-income families — the highest share of any Elk River middle school, though it has been falling — and the school achieves its results with comparatively large classes, roughly 24.4 students per teacher. Low-income students rank in the 89th percentile statewide, above the school's overall standing, while English language learners rank in the 32nd percentile and have been declining, making ELL support the clearest area for improvement. Salk has never dropped below 4 stars, but the math trend, especially in 8th grade, is the most important thing for families to monitor.
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