Windom Public School District

Windom Public School District is a small, self-contained PK–12 district in Windom, Minnesota, in the southwestern part of the state, serving about 1,179 students across three schools: Windom Area Elementary (PK–4, 493 students), Windom Middle (5–8, 359 students), and Windom Senior High (9–12, 327 students). There are no charter or alternative schools in this list. As a district, it ranks 301 of 458 in Minnesota (34th percentile, 2 stars) — below the state median, but not among the lowest performers.

Each school tells a different story. Windom Area Elementary is the district's math engine: its math figure of 51.4% beats the district's 33.7% and the state's 44.9%, and it has the smallest classes (student–teacher ratio 13.2 vs. 14.1 at both other schools). Windom Middle is the weakest performer and the most consistent about it, sitting at the 30th percentile with the district's only 1-star year; its math of 23.9% is 21 points below the state, its science of 12.6% is well under the state's 25.5%, and its 8th grade science of 6.2% is the lowest single figure in the data. Windom Senior High is the highest-ranked school right now (266 of 473, 44th percentile) and the only one to reach 4 stars (2024–25, 72nd percentile), and it is the one bright spot against the state: graduation rate 86.3% vs. the state's 84.9% and science 26.3% vs. 25.5%. But its reading fell sharply, from 54.05% to 30.3% — a 23.75-point drop — alongside a 13.2-point science decline.

Reading is the district's shared weakness: every school sits below the state, with gaps widening by grade level (3rd grade −16.3 points, 8th grade −14.9, 10th grade −12.2). The high school also posts a dropout rate of 7.3% against the state's 4.2%. Since poverty rates (46.79%–49.58% free/reduced lunch) and class sizes are nearly identical across the three schools, these differences are not about differing student context within the district. If you are choosing or supporting a school here, the clearest priorities are early reading at the elementary, middle-school math and 8th-grade science, and the high school's dropout rate and reading decline.