Mountain Iron-Buhl School District

The Mountain Iron-Buhl School District in Minnesota serves students from two schools: Merritt Elementary and Mountain Iron-Buhl Secondary. While both schools have a predominantly white student population, Merritt Elementary stands out as the academic leader, consistently outperforming district and state averages on standardized tests.

Merritt Elementary ranks in the top third of Minnesota elementary schools, with 60.11% of students proficient in math and 58.7% proficient in reading, compared to district averages of 51.3% and 55.88%, and state averages of 45.47% and 49.85%. This strong academic performance may be attributed to the school's relatively low student-teacher ratio of 15.5, which allows for more individualized attention and support.

In contrast, Mountain Iron-Buhl Secondary has more mixed results, with test scores that are more in line with or below district and state averages. However, the school boasts a strong 88.8% four-year graduation rate and a low 2.7% dropout rate. The district may want to examine the practices and resources at Merritt Elementary to see if they can be replicated at the secondary school to raise academic achievement across the district.