Summary:
The Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart district in Minnesota is a small, two-building system serving 431 students: one elementary school covering PK–5 and one secondary school covering grades 6–12. The district as a whole earns 3 stars and ranks 217th of 458 districts (53rd percentile) — but that average hides two very different schools.
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Element is the bright spot, earning 4 stars and ranking in the 70th percentile of about 869 elementary schools, after 5 stars in each of the two prior years. It beats the state in all three subjects at the all-grades level — math 58.1 vs 44.9, reading 54.8 vs 48.6, and science 38.5 vs 25.5 — even though it serves the higher share of students from low-income families (50.5% free/reduced lunch vs 40.8%) and has smaller classes (11.4 students per teacher vs 14.9). Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Seconda earns 1 star and ranks in the 27th percentile of roughly 473 schools, falling below the state in every subject: math 26.7 vs 44.9, reading 46.0 vs 48.6, and science 11.9 vs 25.5. Overall, the elementary outperforms the secondary by about 31 points in math, 27 in science, and 9 in reading.
Within the secondary school, results slip as students move up: 6th and 7th graders perform at or above the state in math and reading, but 8th grade drops well below in math and science, and 11th-grade math proficiency is 9.5% against the state's 35.3%. Science is the weakest subject in both buildings. Graduation (83.8% vs 84.9%) is close to the state, while the dropout rate (9.6% vs 4.2%) is more than double it. Because each grade has only a few dozen students, treat single-year swings with caution — but the district's 3-star rating is essentially a strong elementary averaged with a struggling secondary, so families should look at the two schools separately.
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