Summary
St. Croix Preparatory Academy Upper is a grades 9–12 high school in Stillwater, MN, serving 391 students as part of the St. Croix Preparatory Academy district, which ranks 3rd of 458 Minnesota districts (99th percentile, 5 stars).
The school is one of Minnesota’s top high schools: in 2025–2026 it ranked 2nd of 473 high schools statewide (100th percentile, 5 stars), with top-5 finishes in every listed year since 2015–2016. Its 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency was 71.7% in math, 69.7% in reading, and 68.5% in science, compared with state averages of 44.9%, 48.6%, and 25.5%. Science is the standout gap—more than double the state average and well above Mahtomedi Senior High (37.1%) and Stillwater Area High School (44.3%). Reading remains above those nearby comprehensive high schools, though it has softened from the low 80s in 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 to 69.7% in 2025–2026; the reading exam label also changed from MCA-III to MCA-IV, so some caution is reasonable.
Graduation outcomes are near-perfect: 98.8% in 2024–2025, with a 0.0% dropout rate, better than Mahtomedi Senior High (95.8%, 0.7%) and Stillwater Area High School (96.0%, 0.4%). The school’s 9.21% free/reduced lunch rate and 12.9 student–teacher ratio contrast with larger nearby schools such as Mahtomedi (11.49%, 20.5) and Stillwater (19.64%, 21.7). Its low socioeconomic status subgroup ranked 4th of 389 (99th percentile, 5 stars) in 2023–2024, while the special education subgroup ranked 80th of 224 (64th percentile, 3 stars) in 2025–2026—still above average, but down from 5th of 216 (98th percentile, 5 stars) in 2022–2023 and 19th of 214 (91st percentile, 5 stars) in 2021–2022. Nearby online, alternative, and transition programs such as Falcon View Online High School, New Heights School Inc., and St Croix Valley Area Learning Cntr. serve different populations and post much lower outcomes, so they are not directly comparable.
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