Twelve Minnesota schools did not have a single student who could do grade-level mathematics in the 24-25 academic year, according to an American Experiment review of Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) data.
The 12 schools that have zero students who can demonstrate math proficiency include both traditional public, magnet, and charter schools. Grade-level mathematics proficiency is measured by the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA).
The 0 percent proficiency review does not include area learning centers, alternative schools, or special education schools across the state.
Almost every school is in the Twin Cities metro area. Eight of the 12 schools with zero student math proficiency are charters.
Five of the 12 schools have had 0 students proficient in math for at least two years in a row. An additional school (City Academy) did not report 2023 or 2024 test results, but had no students proficient in math in 2022.
An additional review of the three largest school districts in Minnesota (Anoka-Hennepin, St. Paul, and Minneapolis) found that several elementary schools had grades in which zero students could do mathematics at grade level. In the Minneapolis school district, no 4th grade student at Bethune Elementary, 5th grade student at Cityview Elementary or 5th grade student at Las Estrellas Elementary could do math at grade level.
Similarly, St. Paul had two elementary schools with grades in which no student was proficient in math: 6th grade at East African Magnet School and 5th grade at Hazel Park Preparatory Academy. No elementary student at St. Paul’s Benjamin E. Mays Afrocentric Magnet was able to do math at grade level. (Every Anoka-Hennepin elementary school had at least one student proficient in math.)
Of those three school districts, one Minneapolis high school (Wellstone International High) had no students at grade level in math. One Anoka-Hennepin high school (Sandburg Regional High School) also had zero students at grade level in math. (Every St. Paul high school had at least one student who could do grade-level math.)
In a similar analysis completed in 2022 by my colleague Catrin Wigfall, 50 percent of the traditional public schools with 0 percent proficiency were in the Minneapolis public school district. Today, 25 percent of the traditional public schools with no proficient students were in the Minneapolis district.
Many of the schools with no students practicing mathematics at grade level have been struggling for some time. Of the 12 schools that had no students able to do grade-level math in 2025, three were highlighted in 2022 by Wigfall for having 0 proficient students.
These schools with poor mathematics instruction don’t exist in isolation. Across Minnesota, only 45.2 percent of students can do math at grade level. Mathematics proficiency in Minnesota was slipping long before COVID-19, with the pandemic only worsening the downward trajectory.
The average per-pupil spending at each of the twelve Minnesota schools with 0 students at grade level in math is $19,766.60. This is much higher than the state per-pupil average, suggesting that the inability to teach math at these schools is structural, not financial.
It is unacceptable that twelve Minnesota schools have 0 students proficient in mathematics. It’s even worse that so many of them have had alarmingly low mathematics proficiency for years.
The Minnesota Department of Education must take its mandate as the leader of the Minnesota education system seriously, specifically by intervening in low-performing schools and closing them where necessary. Of the charter schools where 0 students are proficient, charter school authorizers must either ensure that change happens, fast, or close the school.
Adult complacency isn’t an acceptable excuse for allowing 0 students in a school to be at grade level in math.
Students deserve a quality education. When the system isn’t doing the bare minimum by getting any students to grade level, it’s time for Minnesota adults to think about structural systems reform.
