Cook County Senior High

Cook County Senior High is a small public high school in Grand Marais, Minnesota, a remote community on Lake Superior's North Shore, serving about 177 students in grades 9–12. It is the only high school within 20 miles and is part of Cook County Public Schools.

In 2025–2026, the school ranked 21st of 473 Minnesota high schools — 96th percentile, 5 stars — its best result on record and a big jump from 165th of 450 (63rd percentile) the year before. Test scores beat both the district and the state: math 47.4% (district 27.0%, state 44.9%), reading 61.5% (state 48.6%), and science 54.3% (state 25.5%, more than double). Math is the most volatile measure: it fell to 17.95% in 2024–2025 and then rebounded to 47.4%. Because there are no other schools within 20 miles, the only comparisons available are the district and the state; with one high school, district figures mirror the school's own.

Graduation rates are strong: 93.4% in 2023–2024 and 89.5% in 2024–2025, both above the state's 84.2% and 84.9%. Dropout, though, spiked to 6.2% in 2024–2025 — above the state's 4.2% — after two years at 0.0%; in a school of 177 students, one or two students can move that number a lot, so it is worth watching rather than assuming a trend. Low-income students rank in the 97th percentile statewide and male students in the 95th, showing that current success is spread across groups; data for special education students has been mixed and is not reported for the latest year. Class sizes are small (an 11:1 student-teacher ratio), and the share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch has fallen from 50.58% to 38.42% over three years. Overall, this is a small rural school currently performing well above the Minnesota average, with the main cautions being volatility in a small student body, the recent dropout uptick, and limited data for some subgroups.