Summary:
ZIP code 56474 has one elementary school, Pine River-Backus Elementary, a PK–6 school with 478 students in Pine River, Minnesota, part of the Pine River-Backus School District. Because it is the only elementary school in the ZIP code, there are no local peers to compare against; the useful comparisons are to the district, the state, and the school’s own trend.
Reading is the school’s clearest strength. In 2025–2026, all-grade reading proficiency was 54.2%, compared with 45.1% in the district and 48.6% statewide—9.1 points above the district and 5.6 points above the state. Fourth-grade reading was 60% proficient, well above the state’s 48.8%, and third-grade math was 65% proficient, above Minnesota’s 57.9%. Science improved from 15% to 25%, though it remains just below the state’s 25.5%. The school has ranked at 3 stars and the 53rd percentile in 2025–2026, up from 2 stars and the 40th percentile in 2023–2024 but slightly below its 57th percentile in 2024–2025, while the district sits at 2 stars and the 33rd percentile.
Math is the main area to watch. All-grade math was 40.4% proficient in 2025–2026, below the state’s 44.9%. Upper-grade math drops sharply: 5th grade was 26.8% versus 41.9% statewide, and 6th grade was 26.6% versus 39.5%. Both math and reading declined from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, even though the school still outperformed the district in both subjects. With a 67.99% free/reduced-lunch rate and a 12.8 student-teacher ratio, the school serves a high-need population and has a strong reading profile, a promising third-grade math cohort, recent science growth, and a clear need to strengthen upper-elementary math.
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