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SOUTHERN PLAINS AREA LEARNING CNTR.

FAIRMONT · MN · SOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP. · Public · K-12 combined

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📋 At a glance

Programs & features
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 14% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 1% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 49% (Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How SOUTHERN PLAINS AREA LEARNING CNTR. compares for families

What families should know about SOUTHERN PLAINS AREA LEARNING CNTR..

  • LocallyMN students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+7 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: POSITIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING, SOUTHERN PLAINS BRIDGES, FAIRMONT JR./SR. HIGH SCHOOL and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 1% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
1
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
2.1
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
49%
Range: 40–59%
4-year cohort size
30
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
0%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
0.0%
Strong attendance culture among teachers.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

High-poverty school

Title I Schoolwide eligible

83.0%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
144.7%
Well above the national average (~16%). At this level, chronic absence becomes a leading driver of enrollment loss as families rotate to other schools.
Students absent 15+ days
68
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -6.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 47 students:

2025
44
2027
39
2029
34

A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
POSITIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING
FAIRMONT
Public 0.0 1
SOUTHERN PLAINS BRIDGES
FAIRMONT
Public 0.0 11
FAIRMONT JR./SR. HIGH SCHOOL
FAIRMONT
Public 2.1 586 +5.4%
Martin Luther High School
Northrop
Private 5.4 50 +0.0%
Granada Huntley East Chain High Sch
GRANADA
Public 6.2 98 +0.0%
TRUMAN SECONDARY
TRUMAN
Public 11.2 59 -4.8%
Martin County West Senior High
SHERBURN
Public 13.5 187 -21.4%
Blue Earth Area Secondary
BLUE EARTH
Public 18.5 317 -4.2%

For Parents

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