Minnesota school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of eight Minnesota school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for 27 seats. All of the elections were scheduled on November 7, 2017.

Here are several quick facts about Minnesota's school board elections in 2017:

• The largest Minnesota school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was Saint Paul Public Schools with 37,969 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest Minnesota school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was the Minnetonka School District with 9,981 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 163,819 K-12 students during the 2014-2015 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

2017 Minnesota School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Anoka-Hennepin School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	6	37,951
Bloomington Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	4	7	10,380
Minnetonka School District	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	9,981
Mounds View Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	10,987
Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	27,533
Saint Paul Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	37,969
South Washington County Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	5	7	18,143
Wayzata Public Schools	N/A	11/7/2017	N/A	4	3	7	10,875

November 7 election results

Newcomers win more school board seats than they did in 2015

Newcomers won 37.04 percent of the school board seats in eight of Minnesota’s largest school districts on November 7, 2017, which was higher than the 33.33 percent of seats they won in 2015—the last time a majority of these districts held elections. A total of 89.47 percent of school board incumbents won re-election in 2017, down from the 95.65 percent of incumbents who won in 2015.

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Minnesota

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NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin), Minnesota's fourth and eighth graders earned the highest scores across the board.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Minnesota	59%	47%	41%	41%
North Dakota	48%	41%	34%	34%
South Dakota	40%	38%	32%	36%
Wisconsin	47%	40%	35%	36%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Minnesota and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Minnesota schools reported a graduation rate of 79.8 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, lowest among its neighboring states.

In Minnesota, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 23.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Minnesota	79.8%	Fourth	23	74%	1780	6%
North Dakota	87.5%	First	20.5	98%	1799	2%
South Dakota	82.7%	Third	21.9	78%	1760	3%
Wisconsin	88%	First	22.1	71%	1771	4%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Minnesota was lower than the national average at 1.8 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Minnesota
	Minnesota	U.S.
Total population:	5,482,435	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	79,627	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	84.8%	73.6%
Black/African American:	5.5%	12.6%
Asian:	4.4%	5.1%
Native American:	1%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.7%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	5%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	92.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	33.7%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$61,492	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	12.2%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Minnesota. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Minnesota

Minnesota voted for the Democratic candidate in all five presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, 19 are located in Minnesota, accounting for 9.22 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Minnesota had 15 Retained Pivot Counties and four Boomerang Pivot Counties, accounting for 8.29 and 16.00 percent of all Retained and Boomerang Pivot Counties, respectively.

More Minnesota coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Minnesota
• United States congressional delegations from Minnesota
• Public policy in Minnesota
• Influencers in Minnesota
• Minnesota fact checks
• More...

See also

Minnesota	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Minnesota List of school districts in Minnesota	School board elections, 2017 Minnesota school board elections, 2016 Minnesota school board elections, 2015 Minnesota school board elections, 2014	School boards in session: 2015 in brief School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey