Summary:
ZIP code 56401 in Brainerd, Minnesota contains five elementary schools: four in the Brainerd Public School District serving pre-kindergarten through 4th grade, and Discovery Woods, a standalone PK–6 school. Together they enroll 1,343 students, ranging from 101 students at Discovery Woods to 407 at Riverside Elementary, with a median of 250. The four district schools share a 2-star rating (249th of 458 schools), while Discovery Woods' district ranks 430th of 458 with 0 stars.
Lowell Elementary is the clear standout, ranking in the 86th percentile with 4 stars. It is the only school above both district and state averages in Math and Reading: 71.7% Math versus the district's 46.4% and the state's 44.9%, and 62.3% Reading versus 52.0% district and 48.6% state. It also has the lowest FRPL rate (39.72%) and the highest student-teacher ratio (13.9). At the opposite end, Discovery Woods ranks in the 8th percentile with 0 stars, posting 11.8% Math and 30.3% Reading, down sharply from 25.0% and 41.67% the prior year; its 2025–2026 Science result is suppressed and cannot be judged. It has the highest FRPL rate (64.36%) and the smallest enrollment.
Among the rest, Harrison Elementary is improving, with its rank percentile rising from 28% to 41% to 44% and Reading gaining about 8.2 points to 43.8%, still below benchmarks. Garfield Elementary is uneven: 3rd-grade Math is 60.0%, but 4th-grade Math is only 20.3%. Riverside sits at the 32nd percentile, with Math at 42.3% and Reading at 41.4%, both below district and state. Across the ZIP, average Math is about 43.3% and Reading about 43.0%; excluding Discovery Woods, the four district schools average about 51.2% in Math and 46.1% in Reading, making Reading a relative local weakness.
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