Summary:
Vermilion Country School is the only high school in this area — a single-school district located in Tower, Minnesota that serves grades 7–12 with 50 students enrolled. Because there is just one school, comparisons can only be made against the state and against the school's own past performance, not against neighboring schools.
Vermilion Country School stands out in a few important ways. It is very small, with 50 students spread across six grades, and it serves a high-poverty population: 80% of students were eligible for free/reduced-price lunch in 2024–25. Its student-teacher ratio of 9.2 in 2024–25 is low, which is a potential resource advantage for individualized attention. The school's recent completion metrics at the school level are strong — in 2023–24 it reported a 92.3% graduation rate and a 0.0% dropout rate, matching the Vermilion Country School district figures. The state's 2024–25 figures were 84.9% graduation and 4.2% dropout; because the years differ, this is a favorable directional signal rather than an exact same-year comparison.
Academically, the picture is more challenging. The district is ranked 383rd of 458 (16th percentile, 1 star), and the 2025–26 ranking history shows 374th of 473 (21st percentile, 1 star). Test proficiency trails the state in most reported subjects: all-grades math was 0% in both 2024–25 and 2025–26 versus roughly 45% statewide; all-grades reading rose from 11.11% to 22.7% but remains below the state's 48.6%, with 10th-grade reading at 31.3% versus 42.5%; all-grades science was 16.1% versus 25.5%, and End-of-Course science was 16.7% versus 35%. Many grade-level scores are suppressed by the state to protect student privacy, so they are unknown rather than zero. Encouragingly, the school has performed better before, reaching the 49th percentile with 2 stars in 2018–19, so its current bottom-quartile position may not be permanent.
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