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Minneapolis, Minnesota - 1 schools
An equity score of 94/100 ranks Best Academy #4 of 410 districts in Minnesota (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $22,720 per pupil, Best Academy ranks #25 of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending (Minnesota districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
617
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$22,720
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Best Academy operates 1 public schools serving 617 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Minnesota. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Hennepin County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $22,720 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 51 of 504 Minnesota districts by per-pupil spending. See how Minnesota compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 0.5% local, 80.1% state, and 19.4% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 94/100, ranked #4 of 410 in Minnesota against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 254:1 student-counselor ratio, somewhat above the 250:1 ASCA recommendation, and 68.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 93.3% African American, 2.4% Hispanic or Latino, 0.2% Asian across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Best Academy, enrolling 508 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Best Academy accounts for 82.3% of all Best Academy student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Best Academy a distant remainder — means Best Academy-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Best Academy has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 90.8% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Best Academy student-counselor ratio is 254:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Variation between sub-units within Best Academy is typically wider than the Best Academy-aggregate figure suggests.
Best Academy chronic absenteeism rate is 68.3% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.