Summary:
ZIP code 56425 covers Baxter, Minnesota, and contains two schools — Baxter Elementary (grades PK–4) and Forestview Middle (grades 5–8) — both in the Brainerd Public School District, with no high school inside the ZIP. Together they enroll 2,132 students, and the middle school accounts for about 76% of that total. The Brainerd Public School District as a whole is rated 2 stars and sits at the 46th percentile in Minnesota, but both schools in this ZIP earned 4 stars in 2025–2026: Forestview at the 76th percentile and Baxter at the 77th percentile.
Baxter Elementary is the strongest academic performer in the ZIP. Its 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency is 62.9 in math and 62.0 in reading, well above the district (46.4 math, 52.0 reading) and the state (44.9 math, 48.6 reading). Third-grade math reaches 70.0, and fourth-grade reading reaches 64.9, both far above state averages. Baxter improved from 3 stars and the 68th percentile in 2024–2025 to 4 stars and the 77th percentile, helped by an all-grade reading gain of about 8.1 points while the district gained roughly 0.5 points.
Forestview Middle has held 4 stars across all three years of rank history and is strongest in reading: 55.9 all-grade in 2025–2026, above the district's 52.0 and the state's 48.6. Eighth-grade math (52.7) and eighth-grade reading (60.4) are more than 10 points above state, and sixth-grade reading (61.0) is a highlight. Its relative weaknesses are all-grade math (44.2, just below the district's 46.4) and science (21.3, below both district and state), with eighth-grade science at 15.6 — the lowest reported proficiency in the ZIP. Forestview also reports a higher free/reduced lunch rate (39.54% vs 31.82%) and student/teacher ratio (15.5 vs 14.9) than Baxter.
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