Summary:
Elementary schools in the Red Wing Public School District consist of two schools that split the early grades: Burnside Elementary serves grades 2–4 with 493 students, and Sunnyside Elementary serves grades K–1 with 294 students, for a combined enrollment of 787. The two schools serve populations with very similar economic need — free/reduced lunch rates of 40.57% at Burnside and 39.8% at Sunnyside. Both sit within a district ranked 364 of 458 districts, 21st percentile, 1 star.
Burnside Elementary is the only school here with current test scores, and math is its relative bright spot: 37.7% proficient in all-grades math, above the district's 33.5% but below the state's 44.9%. Reading is the bigger gap at 31.5%, below both the district (34.5%) and the state (48.6%) — 17.1 points behind the state. Scores slipped from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026 in both subjects, with reading falling from 36.18% to 31.5%. Burnside's rank also declined, from 614 of 881 (30th percentile, 2 stars) in 2023–2024 to 700 of 869 (19th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–2026.
Sunnyside Elementary shows no current test-score or rank data, which reflects its K–1 grades rather than any academic weakness. Its clearest advantage is a lower student-teacher ratio of 12.0 versus 13.7 at Burnside. Sunnyside's most recent listed rank is from 2021–2022 at 648 of 858, 24th percentile, 1 star, and its older rankings from 2020–2021 and 2002–2003 were above the 30th percentile, though that information is too old to describe current performance. Overall, families comparing the two should weigh Burnside's available test results and declining rank trend against Sunnyside's smaller classes and lack of recent academic data.
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