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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
557
Middle
DISTRICT 538 · STATE 495
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ELK RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 271137000517
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL
948 PROCTOR AVE, ELK RIVER, MN 55330 · (763) 241-3450 · Sherburne County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL557 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 33% of Minnesota public middle schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Minnesota public middle schools
Student : Teacher
23.3:1
24 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 20.4:1 · STATE 17.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
24%
134 students
DISTRICT 27% · STATE 48%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 203 | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 186 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 168 | 30% |
Student demographics
38%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 39% · STATE 60% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
MCA 2024-25 . % Meets or Exceeds StandardsEnglish Language Arts
46.4%
MN avg 49.7%
Math
40.8%
MN avg 45.3%
What this means: On the MCA, Minnesota's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 41 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Minnesota schools, those numbers are about 50 and 45.
Source: MCA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of MN schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
39.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
52.1%
based on MN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-12.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 39% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 52% typical for Minnesota schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL's state test result (39.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL this school | 557 | 24.1% | 39.5% |
| JORDAN MIDDLE JORDAN | 528 | 26.1% | 50.0% |
| Anthony Middle MINNEAPOLIS | 727 | 24.9% | 59.5% |
| STEWARTVILLE MIDDLE STEWARTVILLE | 480 | 23.5% | 39.1% |
| HUTCHINSON MIDDLE HUTCHINSON | 535 | 26.2% | 51.0% |
| Kasson-Mantorville Middle School KASSON | 685 | 21.8% | 51.0% |
Matched among Minnesota middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Minnesota | In Sherburne County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 39.5% | #132 of 245 | #7 of 7 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 40.8% | #124 of 245 | #6 of 7 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.4% | #144 of 245 | #7 of 7 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 557 | #135 of 306 | #4 of 8 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 23.3:1 | #201 of 210 | #5 of 6 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 38.3% | #134 of 216 | #3 of 6 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 24.1% | #199 of 252 | #4 of 7 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -0.4% | #126 of 129 | N/A |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
557
+21 (+4%) vs 2020
-18% since 1990-91, when it was 679
Student : Teacher
23.3:1
was 35.7:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 557 | 23.9 | 23.3:1 | 24% (134) |
| 2023-24 | 521 | 23.7 | 22.0:1 | 27% (143) |
| 2022-23 | 512 | 11.9 | 43.1:1 | 27% (138) |
| 2020-21 | 536 | 15 | 35.7:1 | 15% (80) |
| 2017-18 | 559 | 29 | 19.3:1 | 21% (118) |
| 2015-16 | 495 | 26 | 19.0:1 | 22% (107) |
| 2010-11 | 554 | 33 | 16.8:1 | 21% (116) |
| 2000-01 | 410 | 31 | 13.2:1 | 11% (44) |
| 1990-91 | 679 | 37 | 18.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL.
Since 2017-18: students unchanged (559 to 557); teachers down 18% (29 to 23.9).
About VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL is a mid-sized middle school found in ELK RIVER, Minnesota. Its enrollment is 557 students, spread over grades 6 through 8.
Elk River Public School District has a total of 29 schools and 14,633 students, VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL among them.
About 78% of the student body at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL is White. Smaller groups are 7% Hispanic, 7% Black, 5% multiracial, and 3% Asian. County-wide, 87% of Sherburne County residents are White. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 38%.
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL has 23.9 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 23.3:1. By comparison, the average for middle schools in Minnesota is 17.5:1. A common income measure, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, is 24% at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL.
Among Minnesota public middle schools, VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL outscored 33%, which works out to a C on the allk12 Grade.
On BeatsExpectations, which compares test results with what a school's student poverty level would predict, VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL ranks in the bottom 10% in Minnesota. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 39.5%, against a prediction of 52.1%.
In Sherburne County, where the school is located, median household income comes to about $105,466, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 30%, and about 3% of people live in poverty. There are 45 public schools in the county, enrolling about 16,306, VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL among them.
Measured in a straight line, ISD 728 FOCUS/JOURNEY is less than a tenth of a mile from VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL. The five-mile area around VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL holds at least 8 other public schools.
Federal records code the school's setting as Suburb: Large.
Federal enrollment counts increased from 536 (2020-21) to 557 (2024-25). Students per teacher dropped from 35.7 in 2020-21 to 23.3 in 2024-25.
This page is a place to ask questions and share updates about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Sherburne County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
100,560
Census ACS
Median income
$105,466
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
30%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
3%
Below federal line
Schools in county
45
16,306 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Elk River Public School District
- ROGERS SENIOR HIGHHigh · 1,888 students
- ELK RIVER SENIOR HIGHHigh · 1,562 students
- ROGERS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 1,077 students
- Prairie View Middle SchoolMiddle · 953 students
- Prairie View Elementary SchoolElementary · 755 students
- TWIN LAKES ELEMENTARYElementary · 704 students
Other schools in ELK RIVER
- ELK RIVER SENIOR HIGHHigh · 1,562 students
- TWIN LAKES ELEMENTARYElementary · 704 students
- SALK MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 638 students
- LINCOLN ELEMENTARYElementary · 554 students
- MEADOWVALE ELEMENTARYElementary · 554 students
- PARKER ELEMENTARYElementary · 513 students
Nearby schools
- ISD 728 FOCUS/JOURNEY0.0 mi · 23
- IVAN SAND COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL0.1 mi · 88
- IVAN SAND AFTER SCHOOL CREDIT RECOV0.1 mi · 1
- FAIRVIEW PROGRAM0.1 mi · 6
- Ivan Sand Middle School ALC0.1 mi · 1
- ELK RIVER SENIOR HIGH0.4 mi · 1,562
Frequently asked questions
About VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOLHow many students attend VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL?
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL enrolls approximately 557 students in grades 06-08.
Is VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL an elementary, middle, or high school?
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL have?
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL employs 24 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 23.3:1.
What is the student diversity at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL?
Student demographics at VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL are roughly 78% White, 7% Hispanic, 7% Black, 3% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL in?
VANDENBERGE MIDDLE SCHOOL is part of Elk River Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.