Schools in Finlayson, MN

Finlayson, Minnesota is served by four reported schools — two elementary and two high schools — enrolling 790 students, with grades 7–8 housed inside the two high schools because the city has no middle school. Three of the four belong to the East Central School District (732 students): East Central Elementary, East Central Senior Secondary, and Crossroads Area Learning Center. The fourth, Finlayson Elementary (58 students), belongs to the Hinckley-Finlayson School District.

Finlayson Elementary is the clearest academic standout — the smallest school in the city, yet it holds the highest current rank percentile (350 of 869, 60th percentile, 3 stars), up from 35th percentile two years earlier. Its all-grade math proficiency of 57.1% beats both its district (33.1%) and the state (44.9%), and its science score of 30% is above the district's 18.5% and the state's 25.5%. East Central Senior Secondary (309 students, grades 7–12) also improved, rising to 224 of 473, 53rd percentile, 3 stars. Science is its strength — 26.7% across all grades and 37.7% on the End of Course exam — but math (20.6%) and reading (29.7%) remain below state averages.

East Central Elementary, the largest school at 391 students, posts math and reading at 39.8% each — above district but below state — and a science score of just 7.5%, far under the district's 20.3% and the state's 25.5%; its rank slipped to 33rd percentile, 2 stars. Crossroads Area Learning Center (32 students, grades 7–12) has the highest free/reduced-lunch rate (71.88%) and student-teacher ratio (16), but its 2025–2026 test scores are suppressed by the state, so its academics are unknown rather than poor. Reading is the common weak spot: none of the three schools with reported reading scores reaches the state's 48.6%. Both high schools trail the state's 84.9% graduation rate and exceed its 4.2% dropout rate, with Crossroads at 13.6%.