Not a single student could do grade-level math at 11 Minnesota schools during the 2024-25 academic year, according to a review published by American Experiment based on Minnesota Department of Education data. The schools with zero math proficiency include traditional public, magnet, and charter institutions, nearly all of them located in the Twin Cities metro area. Proficiency was measured using the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment, and the analysis excluded alternative learning centers and special education schools.
Charter schools made up eight of the 11 institutions where no student achieved grade-level math skills, the report found. Five of these schools have registered zero proficient students in math for at least two consecutive years. A sixth school, City Academy, didn't submit test results for 2023 or 2024 but had no proficient students in 2022. A separate examination of Minnesota's three largest districts—Anoka-Hennepin, St. Paul, and Minneapolis—revealed elementary schools with entire grade levels where no student met math standards. In Minneapolis, zero fourth graders at Bethune Elementary, zero fifth graders at Cityview Elementary, and zero fifth graders at Las Estrellas Elementary could do math at grade level. St. Paul recorded zero proficient sixth graders at East African Magnet School and zero proficient fifth graders at Hazel Park Preparatory Academy, while no elementary student at Benjamin E. Mays Afrocentric Magnet reached grade-level math. At the high school level, Minneapolis's Wellstone International High had no students proficient in math, though every Anoka-Hennepin and St. Paul high school had at least one proficient student.
The report notes that many of these struggling schools have faced persistent problems over time. Three of the 11 schools with zero proficient students in 2025 were flagged in a 2022 analysis for the same failure. Average per-pupil spending at these 11 schools reaches $19,660.31—well above the state average—which "suggests that the inability to teach math at these schools is structural, not financial," the report states. In a previous 2022 review, half of traditional public schools with zero proficiency were in Minneapolis; today that figure has dropped to 25 percent of traditional public schools without proficient students.
These schools don't stand alone in their struggles. Across Minnesota, only 45.2 percent of students can perform math at grade level, and mathematics proficiency was declining before COVID-19, with the pandemic accelerating the slide. The report argues that higher spending hasn't solved the problem, pointing to structural failures in how these institutions operate. The authors call the situation "unacceptable" and urge the Minnesota Department of Education to intervene in low-performing schools and shut them down where needed. Charter school authorizers must force rapid change or close failing charters, the report says, because "adult complacency isn't an acceptable excuse for allowing 0 students in a school to be at grade level in math." The bottom line: when not a single student meets basic standards year after year, the state needs to consider fundamental systems reform, not just more funding.