District Report Card
Good decisions require more than a single number. The District Report Card brings Minnesota academic achievement, student outcomes, school-finance, enrollment, student-context and workforce data together in one district-centered tool. Snapshot provides a cross-domain overview of selected measures and comparison context, including district-reported K-3 early literacy screening where available. Use Academics to explore achievement, comparisons, gaps, trends and participation; use Students to examine student profile, needs, attendance, graduation and academic progress; use Finance to examine published Financial Profile measures and resource trends; and use Staffing & Enrollment to examine district scale, enrollment mobility and teacher-workforce trends. Use Insights to examine Academics, Attendance and Student Need together while keeping each source definition and reporting period visible. Integrated views place related measures side by side while keeping definitions, reporting periods and limitations distinct. Insights starts with a suggested analysis, then lets you choose the measures and relationship that matter to you.
How to read this report card
District Snapshot is the broadest view of a district. It combines published academic results and participation context with selected same-numbered fiscal-year Financial Profile measures. All Subjects is available only in District Snapshot; Reading, Mathematics and Science remain separate published results and are never averaged into a synthetic proficiency rate. Financial values provide resource context and do not explain or cause an academic result.
School Results shows schools with public assessment results for the selected year, subject and grade. MDE suppression is preserved and unavailable values are not converted to zero.
District Comparison compares the selected district with reportable districts whose polygons touch it in the Minnesota School District Boundaries 2026 geographic layer. The displayed neighbor average is an unweighted average of reportable neighboring districts for the exact year, subject, grade and student group selected. Geographic boundaries are used for analytical comparison, not as a legal boundary determination. Financial context is displayed separately, and the detailed data table reconciles the academic and financial values shown visually above.
Statewide District Ranking places the selected academic result among reportable traditional Minnesota public school districts for the same selection. Rank and percentile are descriptive; they do not adjust for district size or student composition. Financial resource positions shown with academic results likewise describe reported resource levels, not school quality or performance.
District Trend follows published proficiency over time while preserving suppression ranges, the 2020 statewide testing gap and assessment-series boundaries. Where financial context is overlaid, published Spending / ADM and related measures use a separate dollar axis. Matching assessment-year and fiscal-year numbers are aligned for visual context only and do not imply causation.
North Star Academic Achievement adds Minnesota accountability context to the selected academic results while retaining source assessment definitions, suppression and reporting limitations.
Achievement Gap Analysis compares directly published proficiency percentages for configured student-group pairs. Suppressed subgroup values are left unavailable rather than reconstructed. Differences are descriptive percentage-point gaps, not tests of statistical significance.
Approx. Cohort Path follows configured assessment checkpoints for an approximate grade cohort across years. It is not matched-student longitudinal growth: enrollment changes, mobility and changing student composition can affect each observation. Assessment-series changes break the path, and defensible legacy suppression ranges are shown without estimating a midpoint.
Participation reports published tested and reason/refusal counts. When the source record does not provide the information required for a source-defined participation denominator or percentage, the Report Card does not manufacture one.
Enrollment, ADM & Adjusted Pupil Units
- Enrollment
- Student headcount reported for the district. Enrollment is useful for understanding district scale and for measures normalized per enrolled student.
- Adjusted ADM
- MDE's published adjusted Average Daily Membership measure reflects student membership over time rather than a single-day headcount. Many Financial Profile revenue and spending measures are published per Adjusted ADM.
- Adjusted Pupil Units
- Weighted pupil membership used in Minnesota school-funding formulas. Statutory pupil weights mean Adjusted Pupil Units can differ from both Enrollment and Adjusted ADM.
Why it matters: A district can have roughly the same Enrollment while its ADM or Adjusted Pupil Units change. Those differences can affect funding, revenue and spending per ADM, staffing ratios and cross-district comparisons without representing an equivalent change in the number of students sitting in classrooms.
Students brings together descriptive student context and North Star student-success outcomes while preserving the source definition and actual reporting year for each measure. Student Context & Needs uses published counts and shares for special education, free or reduced-price eligibility, English learner status, Students of Color or American Indian, and students experiencing homelessness. Student Opportunities uses FY2025 district-level Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and concurrent- enrollment measures from the MDE Rigorous Course Taking report, with same-year grades 9-12 enrollment from MDE used for clearly labeled normalized views. Activity counts remain activity rates rather than unique-student percentages. PSEO is not shown as a district comparison because the FY2025 report's PSEO appendix is organized by postsecondary institution rather than school district. No district value is inferred from institution totals. Student Success & Graduation uses MDE North Star outcomes for consistent attendance, four- and seven-year graduation, reading and mathematics academic progress, and English Learner Progress. These measures describe different aspects of the students served and their reported outcomes; juxtaposition does not establish that a student characteristic caused an outcome.
Staffing & Enrollment combines public enrollment, student-context, open-enrollment and teacher-workforce measures in a district-centered domain. The Snapshot summarizes scale and direction; Enrollment & Mobility focuses on enrollment and open-enrollment flow; Student Needs follows published student-need counts and shares; Teacher Workforce examines published workforce characteristics; District Comparison places the selected district beside the active DRC comparison cohort; and Statewide Comparison places one selected measure in the statewide distribution. The Staffing & Enrollment year selector defaults to 2024-25 when that year is available because it provides the strongest common cross-domain coverage in the current data. Missing or suppressed values are not converted to zero, and higher or lower comparison position is not automatically better or worse.
Finance uses published MDE Financial Profile data. Financial Overview summarizes key district resource measures; Revenue shows published revenue measures and source mix; Spending shows published expenditure measures; Special Education combines published SPED student context, Financial Profile resource measures and the FY2024 MDE district cross-subsidy table; District Comparison applies the active Geography, Similarities, or Customized cohort to a selected financial measure; Statewide Comparison places a selected financial measure among reportable districts; and Financial Trend follows a selected measure across fiscal years. Financial position describes the amount of resources reported, not educational quality or financial-management performance.
Forecast & Scenario Lab applies user-editable assumptions to a published Financial Profile baseline. Future values are mathematical scenario outputs, not predictions, official district forecasts or adopted budgets.
Assessment-series labels are retained because results from different MCA series should not be treated as one uninterrupted measurement scale. Statewide MCA testing was not administered in 2020.
Methodology and sources
Academic assessment results, achievement distributions and participation records come from public Minnesota Department of Education statewide assessment data served through the MN_EDU academic API. Financial measures come from public MDE Financial Profile records served through the MN_EDU finance API. Student profile/needs, enrollment, open-enrollment and teacher-workforce measures are served through the MN_EDU context API. Attendance, graduation, academic-progress and English Learner Progress outcomes are served through the MN_EDU student-success API from public MDE North Star accountability files. FY2024 district cross-subsidy measures come from MDE's 2025 Special Education Cross-Subsidies report, Tables 2 and 3; the district table excludes federal special education activity and is not interchangeable with the comprehensive statewide calculation. District identity is aligned across domains using district number and district type; school identity is interpreted within that district.
Postsecondary outcomes use public Minnesota Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS) High School Graduates summary reports served through MN_EDU. The District Report Card uses the public College Enrollment, Completing College, Developmental Education, Out-of-State Enrollment, and Entering the Workforce report families. Official district-level results are used directly; school percentages are not averaged to create district results. District comparisons use the canonical Minnesota Statewide observation for the same cohort and category. Source rounding, suppression, missingness, and follow-up definitions are preserved.
FastBridge early literacy uses public district Local Literacy and READ Act reports served through MN_EDU. Snapshot displays a screened-student-weighted K-3 aggregate only when Kindergarten through Grade 3 all have reportable screened and benchmark counts for the same school year and screening window. These screening benchmarks are distinct from MCA proficiency and do not describe individual student growth. Benchmark definitions may be vendor, MDE composite, district-set or unspecified in the source. Missing or suppressed grades are not inferred or converted to zero. Original source evidence and grade-level methodology belong with the detailed Academics reporting.
The SLEDS high-school graduate cohort is defined from Status End codes 8 or 9 and is not the same population as the MDE graduation-rate cohort. Persistence may use newer cohorts, while completion headlines use the latest cohort considered fully mature under the current source contract, currently 2020. Out-of-state enrollment information uses National Student Clearinghouse coverage for up to eight years after high school graduation. In workforce results, Employed means working in Minnesota one full year after high school graduation. Unknown does not mean unemployed and may include activity outside Minnesota wage records.
Student discipline uses public Minnesota Report Card unique-student disciplinary action data served through MN_EDU. Reportable action rates preserve source status and are not converted from suppressed or unavailable values. Unique students are not summed across different disciplinary action types because the same student may appear in more than one action category. Detailed incident/reason analysis is not shown because a certified public source for that detail has not been acquired.
The Report Card uses public aggregated results. It preserves MDE suppression and missingness rather than reconstructing suppressed student results, estimating missing achievement values or converting unavailable values to zero. A participation percentage is shown only when the source provides the information required to support it.
Assessment names, series and performance categories follow the applicable MDE source. Mathematics MCA-III and MTAS use MDE Achievement Level Descriptors. Reading and Science MCA-IV and Alternate MCA use MDE Performance Level Descriptors. Results from different assessment series are not treated as directly comparable.
Financial data use published MDE Financial Profile measures as the authoritative public reporting basis. Published per-ADM measures are displayed as published rather than being recomputed from another denominator. Clearly labeled derived context measures may be calculated from those published values, but they do not replace the source records.
When inflation adjustment is off, historical dollar measures are displayed in published nominal dollars. When enabled, historical dollar values are converted to the latest displayed year's purchasing power using annual-average CPI-U, U.S. city average, All Items index ratios. Inflation adjustment changes presentation only; it does not alter the underlying MDE records.
Geographic-neighbor comparisons use polygons from the Minnesota School District Boundaries 2026 feature layer and select districts whose polygons touch the selected district. Neighbor averages are unweighted averages of reportable districts. MDE notes that mapped district boundaries are generalized and should not be interpreted as authoritative legal boundary descriptions.
Cross-domain alignment places assessment, fiscal and context values with the same numeric year beside one another when useful. Reporting periods and source definitions remain distinct, and the displayed context year is labeled when an exact same-numbered observation is not available. The Report Card does not infer that resources, staffing or student composition caused an academic or financial outcome.
Forecast & Scenario Lab applies user-editable assumptions to published Financial Profile inputs. Scenario results are mathematical illustrations, not predictions, official district forecasts or adopted budgets.
Academic data and verification: Minnesota Report Card; MDE Public Assessment Data; MDE Statewide Testing; MDE Student Participation.
Assessment performance definitions: MDE Achievement Level Descriptors - Math MCA-III / MTAS; MDE Performance Level Descriptors - Reading / Science MCA-IV and Alternate MCA.
Financial data: MDE Financial Management / Financial Profiles.
Postsecondary outcomes: Minnesota SLEDS - High School Graduates. Public district and Minnesota Statewide summary results are integrated through the MN_EDU postsecondary reporting layer with source cohort, suppression, maturity, and follow-up definitions preserved.
Staffing and enrollment data: public Minnesota Department of Education enrollment and open-enrollment records plus published teacher-workforce source records integrated through the MN_EDU context model. Source-year and comparability exceptions are preserved in the reporting layer.
Geographic comparison: Minnesota School District Boundaries 2026; MDE District Organization / Boundary Context.
Inflation adjustment: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - CPI-U Purchasing Power and Constant Dollars.
Change Log
26.9.5Clarity, relationships and reliabilityReleased September 18, 2026
Released September 18, 2026.
- Refine default views across all six tabs, restore useful presentation where needed, and make reporting periods and source context clearer while preserving deeper drill-down.
- Improve Students with visual Student Context and Student Success profiles, a clearer Outcome Trend, stronger visualization typography, and descriptive, non-causal framing.
- Improve Staffing & Enrollment with clearer Open Enrollment comparisons, measure-appropriate sorting, comparable-year Staffing Depth defaults and source notes, more visible Staffing Snapshot content, Degree Mix, and more readable composition charts.
- Restore the stronger Finance presentation so Operating Context, revenue composition, and change analysis remain visible, while preserving current-period semantics and direct Special Education routes.
- Make Insights easier to use with visible Measure A/B/C controls, 9 curated presets, and a 30-measure runtime catalog; add Reading performance + chronic absenteeism and Academic performance + instructional spending as two curated descriptive relationships with distinct periods and non-causal interpretation.
- Standardize the DRC visual language through a staged CSS architecture cleanup, shared presentation primitives, and improved chart readability and contrast across themes, panels, tables, and modal surfaces.
- Harden routing, browser history, comparison state, direct routes, anchors, permalinks, asynchronous loading, and fallback to the latest installed version when the configured active version is unavailable; expand permanent browser/runtime QA and complete final review and cleanup across all six tabs, including modal, theme, and mobile coverage.
26.9.4FastBridge integrationReleased September 16, 2026
Released September 16, 2026.
Snapshot. Expand the two Academics tiles so Reading presents MCA Reading Proficiency followed by a district-level Early Literacy result. The Early Literacy value is a screened-student-weighted K-3 FastBridge aggregate for the latest complete school year and screening window; missing or suppressed grades are not inferred or converted to zero.
Insights. Organize Reading as a parent concept with separately selectable MCA Reading Proficiency and FastBridge Reading child measures. Each child remains one ordinary A-vs-B comparison measure; MCA and FastBridge are never combined into a synthetic Reading value. Mathematics remains MCA-only.
Academics. Add districtwide K-3 FastBridge Fall, Winter and Spring benchmark results to Reading. A combined timeline may show authentic annual MCA Reading proficiency and seasonal FastBridge percentages together without averaging them or treating the assessments as equivalent.
Evidence. Snapshot provides concise FastBridge timing, source and benchmark context while keeping screening distinct from MCA proficiency. Academics provides grade-level results, district-and-year-specific source links, original evidence identifiers, methodology and immutable fingerprints.
26.9.3Insights and connected evidenceReleased September 14, 2026
Released September 14, 2026.
Insights. Add the sixth DRC tab as a new cross-domain Insights workspace for relationship analysis, with curated starting analyses and themes, editable Measure A and Measure B selections, additional comparison measures, exact-value tables, and descriptive relationship views. Similar Districts, Geographic Neighbors, and Custom Comparison groups are supported, including Start with Similar Districts and Start with Geographic Neighbors. The catalog now contains 28 measures across Academics, Students, Enrollment, Staffing, Finance and Postsecondary, including academic proficiency and progress, attendance, student need, discipline, enrollment movement, graduation, English-language proficiency progress, postsecondary outcomes, staffing, and finance measures such as operating revenue, operating spending, and instructional spending per adjusted ADM.
- Suggested analyses provide comparison groups and a configurable Measure A reference with additional comparison measures. Measure A is retained as the reference while each comparison remains separately identified.
- Each selected observation keeps source and timing information, population and unit definitions, reportability, suppression or unavailable treatment, and the route to supporting detail visible.
- Small-N protections suppress fitted lines and directional relationship language below the reportability threshold. Insights is descriptive and observational; it does not make causal claims, infer individual student linkage, or create a synthetic district score.
Staffing and shared experience. PELSB STAR Staff Employment staffing-stability data adds licensed-staff continuity where applicable. Shared district search and navigation, comparison behavior, exact-value and relationship views, six-theme support, modal and overlay presentation, and responsive layouts now provide a consistent DRC experience across all domains.
Analytics and evidence foundation. Canonical observations, typed reporting periods and cohorts, cross-domain evidence selection and alignment, and a shared visualization grammar now provide common structure for the migrated domains. The evidence layer preserves source definitions, source lineage, suppression and reportability states while explaining when periods or populations are aligned only for descriptive context.
Performance and loading. Route-first, dependency-aware loading prioritizes the requested or active report while preserving multidimensional cross-domain views. Inactive domain code and report data are deferred until after the active domain is ready; first activation is lazy, while idle or focus prefetch prepares later tabs. Domain loading is promise-cached, stale generations cannot overwrite a newer selection, and direct links no longer wait for unrelated tabs to load first.
Universal shell and direct links. Tool-wide district search, selected-district state and routing now live in the always-loaded shared shell. District search works when entering any domain directly, and Back/Forward, direct permalinks, report selection and Update report restoration are handled independently of Academics or another domain initializing first.
Themes and embed. Six curated DRC-only themes are available through stable numeric GET IDs t=0 through t=5; the IDs are immutable even though the user-facing selector and embed reference are alphabetized by theme name. Theme state is scoped to the DRC, persists in theme-aware permalinks and embeds, and uses an accessible native selector with WCAG-conscious palette and chart-role work. Host-page styling is not changed.
Academics and Finance. Proficiency Trend combines academic proficiency with Spending / ADM and Revenue / ADM in a multidimensional view. Inflation-aware financial context, exact published values, and the established MCA achievement-distribution semantic colors remain visible across the relevant reports.
New or expanded data sources. 26.9.3 adds the PELSB STAR Staff Employment continuity source family through the MN_EDU staffing-stability service. It reports source-defined licensed-staff continuity across current and prior school-year workforce snapshots, with source file lineage, numerator and denominator, small-cell handling and anomaly information preserved. This continuity measure is kept distinct from staffing level, FTE, ratio and staffing-mix measures.
26.9.2Postsecondary outcomes and release hardeningReleased September 8, 2026
Released September 8, 2026.
- Add Postsecondary Outcomes with cohort-specific Minnesota comparisons across after-high-school enrollment, college pathways, persistence and completion, graduate destinations, and college readiness.
- Integrate Discipline Context into Student Success using the latest reportable out-of-school suspension rate, prior-period direction, and active comparison-district context.
- Refine the Cross-Domain Relationship Explorer with stronger reportable-pair year selection, clearer period labeling, and the shared comparison controls.
- Expand the District Report Card toward legacy-tool consolidation while retaining Graduate Outcomes where its aspiration and fixed four-year completion measures are not yet equivalent to SLEDS.
New or expanded data sources: Minnesota SLEDS public High School Graduates reports are added as a new District Report Card source family: College Enrollment, Completing College, Developmental Education, Out-of-State Enrollment, and Entering the Workforce. Historical district and canonical Minnesota Statewide observations are integrated through MN_EDU with source cohort, suppression, rounding, and follow-up rules preserved.
Recent SLEDS completion cohorts are not presented as mature completion outcomes. Existing discipline integration continues to use public Minnesota Report Card unique-student disciplinary action data; certified disciplinary incident/reason detail remains unavailable and is not inferred.
26.9.1Discipline and staffing depthReleased September 5, 2026
Released September 5, 2026.
- Student Discipline action rates and multi-year trends, with Discipline & Student Outcome analysis and subgroup representation context.
- Staffing Composition and Staffing Depth with FTE per 1,000 Adjusted ADM visual summaries and explicit source gaps.
- Cross-Domain Relationship Explorer with common-year comparisons and interpretation refinements.
- Finance Scenario historical enrollment enhancement with compact actual and modeled trends.
- Selection-before-scroll and rendering lifecycle improvements; clearer report defaults and comparison context.
New or expanded coverage: Minnesota Report Card discipline unique-student action data and staffing assignment/teacher subject depth. Invalid 2024 staffing assignments are excluded; teacher subject 2024 remains a source gap.
Certified MDE disciplinary incident/reason source detail remains unavailable and has not been acquired.
26.9.0Comparative intelligenceReleased September 4, 2026
Released September 4, 2026.
- Build on the 26.8.6 cross-domain Snapshot foundation with Comparative Intelligence.
- Add Neighbor, Similar District and Custom comparison modes across District Report Card comparison views.
- Add a first-class Finance District Comparison that uses the active Geography, Similarities, or Customized cohort while preserving the separate Statewide Comparison.
- Add transparent Similar District scoring using enrollment, geographic area, special education share, economic need and English learner share.
- Add optional local-funding/levy and debt-service context to Similar District scoring.
- Add a Custom Comparison builder and compact, reconstructible comparison-link state.
- Add printable (
p=1) and embeddable (e=1) presentation modes with service attribution.
Expanded data sources: Official MDE school-district geographic boundary area is added to support structural similarity. Existing MDE Financial Profile data is expanded into optional Similar District context for local funding and debt service.
26.8.6District SnapshotReleased August 31, 2026
- Add District Snapshot, a cross-domain overview of selected academic, student, finance, staffing and enrollment measures with geographic-neighbor and Minnesota context.
- Make Snapshot the default District Report Card view.
- Rename the Academics overview to Academic Snapshot to distinguish it from the new cross-domain view.
- Add district-comparable PELSB average teacher salary to Snapshot and Staffing comparison views.
- Add salary-context workforce comparisons, advanced-degree share, Snapshot loading-state corrections, Explore navigation reset, and a legacy-version footer link.
Data sources: No new source family is introduced. Snapshot reuses the certified data and comparison contracts already published in the four District Report Card data areas.
26.8.5Students domainReleased August 29, 2026
Released August 29, 2026.
- Add the Students domain with Student Success, Student Context & Needs, and Student Opportunities.
- Expand Student Context with Students of Color or American Indian and repair incomplete-year selection.
- Add selectable percentage-of-enrollment and reported student-total views to Student Context & Needs geographic comparisons.
- Expand Student Opportunities from FY2025 into comparable historical rigorous-course trends.
- Add plain-language interpretation and fix cross-domain district search routing.
New or expanded data sources: MDE rigorous-course-taking reports expanded historically; MDE enrollment race/ethnicity fields expanded for Students of Color or American Indian. Existing North Star student-success data is presented more completely but is not a new source.
26.8.4Finance context and permanent linksReleased August 27, 2026
Released August 27, 2026.
- Added Special Education Financial Context within Finance.
- Added permanent report/link infrastructure, compatibility redirects, and improved report navigation.
New or expanded data sources: MDE 2025 Special Education Cross-Subsidies Report, FY2024 Tables 2-3.
26.8.3Staffing and enrollmentReleased August 26, 2026
Released August 26, 2026.
- Added Staffing & Enrollment and statewide/geographic context.
New or expanded data sources: MDE enrollment/open-enrollment/pupil-unit/student-needs data; NCES CCD staffing data; PELSB teacher-workforce data.
26.8.2Finance and Scenario LabReleased August 20, 2026
Released August 20, 2026.
- Added Finance with overview, revenue, spending, comparison, trend, and Forecast & Scenario Lab.
New or expanded data sources: MDE Financial Management / Financial Profile data and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U.
26.8.1Academic comparisonsReleased August 18, 2026
Released August 18, 2026.
- Expanded academic comparisons, student-group views, participation, achievement distributions, gap analysis, North Star context, and longitudinal views.
Expanded data sources: MDE assessment data expanded for student-group proficiency, participation, and North Star accountability.
26.8.0Initial releaseReleased August 17, 2026
Released August 17, 2026.
- Initial District Report Card release.
Initial data sources: MDE assessment/participation data and Minnesota Report Card contextual data.
