Summary:
ZIP code 56120 in Butterfield, Minnesota, is home to just two public schools, both part of the Butterfield-Odin Public Schools district: Butterfield Elementary, serving grades PK–6 with 110 students, and Butterfield Secondary, serving grades 7–12 with 103 students. There is no separate middle school or alternative school here, and with about 213 students combined, this is a very small school community. The district as a whole is rated 1 star, ranked 373 of 458 in Minnesota, at the 19th percentile.
Comparing the two schools, Butterfield Elementary is the stronger performer in every all-grade subject for 2025–2026: math 33.9% versus 26.7%, reading 33.9% versus 22.2%, and science 21.4% versus 6.5%. Elementary ranked at the 28th percentile, compared with Secondary at the 18th percentile. Even so, both schools trail state averages in all three subjects: Elementary is 11.0 points below the state in math, 14.7 in reading, and 4.1 in science, while Secondary is 18.2 points below in math, 26.4 in reading, and 19.0 in science. Reading is the weakest broad subject area, and Secondary's reading gap is the largest shortfall in the data.
There are real bright spots at Butterfield Elementary: 5th grade math is 50% proficient versus the state's 41.9%, and 5th grade reading is 57.1% versus 54.5%. All-grade science also rose from 11.76% to 21.4% year over year. At Butterfield Secondary, the concerns are more serious: 8th grade science is 0% proficient versus the state's 16.7%, the graduation rate is 70.3% versus 84.9%, and the dropout rate is 7.4% versus 4.2%. Both schools serve high-poverty populations, with free/reduced lunch at 75.45% for Elementary and 64.08% for Secondary, and student-teacher ratios of 8.6 and 11.0 respectively.
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