Schools in Walker, MN

Walker, Minnesota has three schools serving students from preschool through 12th grade: W.H.A. Elementary (PK–6), Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Sec. (grades 7–12, so the middle grades are housed there as well), and Up North Learning Center, a small K–12 alternative school. Together they enroll 699 students, and 686 of them — about 98% — attend the two schools in the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School District, which is ranked 308 of 458 Minnesota districts with 2 stars.

Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Sec. is the strongest performer on completion measures, graduating 93.7% of students versus 84.9% statewide, with a 3.1% dropout rate versus 4.2% statewide. It also rose from 1 star and the 20th percentile in 2024–2025 to 2 stars and the 43rd percentile in 2025–2026, and its reading proficiency climbed from 34.01% to 43.5% while the state figure dipped slightly. Math is still a weak spot at 21.1%, which is 23.8 points below the state, and science is 14.1%. W.H.A. Elementary has stayed at 1 star and roughly the 28th percentile for three years and trails the state in every subject — math at 35.7% vs 44.9%, reading at 38.4% vs 48.6%, and science at 15.1% vs 25.5%. Its third-grade reading rate of 22.9% compares with 46.8% statewide.

Up North Learning Center is very small, with only 13 students, so its percentages can swing widely from year to year. Math proficiency is 9.1% and reading is 18.2%, while science is suppressed for privacy and should be read as unknown rather than zero. It has the highest free/reduced lunch rate at 69.23% and the lowest student-teacher ratio at 4.8. Poverty indicators are high area-wide: 61.79% at the elementary school and 48.9% at the high school, with student-teacher ratios of 11.0 and 12.2 respectively.