Summary:
High Schools in Northfield Public School District include two schools—Northfield Senior High, serving grades 9–12 with 1,283 students, and Northfield Area Learning Center, serving grades 6–12 with 107 students—for a combined 1,390 students. The district is rated 79th of 458 in Minnesota, at the 83rd percentile with 4 stars, and has an 89.8% graduation rate, 4.1% dropout rate, and proficiency above the state in math, reading, and science. Because one school is a large comprehensive high school and the other is a small alternative learning center with a broader grade span, comparisons should be read with context.
Northfield Senior High is the standout. Its 2025–2026 rank is 36th of 473 schools, 92nd percentile, 5 stars, up from 123rd of 480 in 2023–2024. Its graduation rate is 94.2%, above the district and state, and its dropout rate is 3.1%, below both. Science is its strongest relative subject: 46.2% proficiency in 2025–2026 versus 36.4% district and 25.5% state. Math is 52.8%, above the state’s 44.9% but below the district’s 58.9%. Reading is 59.3%. Year over year, math improved by 4.65 percentage points, while reading declined by 4.66 and science slipped 0.96.
Northfield Area Learning Center has a very different profile: 59.81% free/reduced lunch versus 25.18% at Northfield Senior High. Its graduation rate is 62.7%, its dropout rate is 9.8%, and its 2025–2026 proficiency is 4.2% in math, 12.5% in reading, and 0% in science. Many grade-level values are suppressed by the state and shown as “—”; those are unknown, not zero. The gaps are large: about 48.6 points in math, 46.8 in reading, and 46.2 in science. District numbers mask this internal split, so parents should consider each school’s mission, grade range, and student needs rather than treating the two as directly equivalent.
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