Woodbury Leadership Academy Upper

Woodbury Leadership Academy Upper is a charter school in the suburban Twin Cities community of Woodbury, Minnesota (Washington County) serving 220 students in grades 6–10 — the only school in its nearby peer group that continues past 8th grade. It belongs to its own charter district, Woodbury Leadership Academy, which ranks 53rd of 458 Minnesota districts (88th percentile, 4 stars), while the school itself ranks 126th of 546 schools (77th percentile, 4 stars) for 2025–2026.

Academically the school has a lopsided profile: science and reading are strengths, math is the gap. On 2025–2026 MCA testing, 53.5% of students were proficient in reading (above the 48.6% state figure) and 27.8% in science — the best result in this local comparison group, ahead of Lake Middle School (27.7%) and well above the state (25.5%). Eighth-grade science is especially strong at 27.3% against a 16.7% state figure. Math, at 39.8%, sits 5.1 points below state, and the weakness is concentrated in 8th grade: 28.9% proficient versus a 42.3% state average, even though 6th and 7th grades (42.2% and 42.1%) are modestly above their benchmarks. Notably, that same 8th-grade class posts the school's best science result, so this looks subject-specific rather than a weak group of students.

The middle grades are the engine; grades 9–10 results (41.2% reading vs. 42.5% state, and science at 28.6% vs. 35%) are at or below state. With about 24% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, the school outperforms higher-poverty neighbors such as Skyview Middle School and E-Stem Middle School by wide margins, and it earns similar overall marks to Woodbury Middle School through a different route — stronger in reading and science, weaker in math. Results are consistent across student groups, with special-education outcomes (17th percentile) and low-income students as the clear areas to watch.