Summary:
The Waseca Public School District in Minnesota contains two high schools: Waseca Senior High, serving grades 9–12 with 555 students, and Waseca Area Learning Center, serving grades 7–12 with 65 students. The district as a whole ranks 270 of 458 districts, at the 41st percentile with 2 stars — a combined profile shaped by two schools at opposite ends of the performance spectrum. Both schools report a dropout rate of 4.3%, close to the state's 4.2%.
Waseca Senior High is the stronger and more stable of the two, earning 3 stars in all three rank-history years and placing 173 of 473 schools in 2025–2026, the 63rd percentile. Its graduation rate is 91.3%, above the district's 84.7% and the state's 84.9%. Science is its clearest strength: 38.5% proficient versus 22.0% district and 25.5% state, a pattern that holds in both years. At the tested-grade level it also beats district and state in 11th-grade math (36.4% vs 32.6% and 35.3%) and EOC science (38.5% vs 33.6% and 35.0%); 10th-grade reading is above district but slightly below state. All-grades math and reading remain below state averages.
Waseca Area Learning Center faces severe academic challenges: 0 stars in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, a 2025–2026 rank of 465 of 473 (2nd percentile), math and reading proficiency reported at 0%, science at 5.6%, and a 39.1% graduation rate — less than half the district and state. Its rank history has fallen from the 25th to the 8th to the 2nd percentile. Context matters: 70.77% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch versus 36.4% at Waseca Senior High, and its student-teacher ratio is smaller (11.4 vs 15.7), suggesting its challenges are not simply about class size.
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