La Crescent-Hokah Middle School

La Crescent-Hokah Middle School is a grades 5–8 school at 1301 Lancer Blvd in La Crescent, Minnesota, a small Mississippi River town near the Wisconsin border, serving 311 students — the largest brick-and-mortar middle school in this comparison — and it belongs to the La Crescent-Hokah School District.

By the numbers, this is a mid-tier Minnesota middle school that is clearly improving. In 2025-2026 it ranked 225th of 546 middle schools statewide (59th percentile, 3 stars) — its highest rank and first 3-star rating in the ten years of data available, and a 17-percentile-point jump from 42nd the year before. All three tested subjects improved year over year: math 28.8% to 34.8%, reading 48.4% to 51.4%, science 17.1% to 21.5%. Even so, the school lands below its own district in all three subjects — most sharply in math (34.8 vs. 45.2) and science (21.5 vs. 28.3) — which makes the middle grades the weak link in a district ranked in the top 15% statewide. Reading (51.4%) is above the state average, but that result is carried almost entirely by 5th grade at 66.2%; grades 6–8 sit slightly to modestly below state. Math is below state in every single grade.

Nearby comparisons are telling. Caledonia Middle, 15.5 miles away, ranks 28th of 546 (95th percentile) with 62.3% math and 68.3% reading — despite a higher free/reduced-lunch rate (24.6%) than La Crescent-Hokah's 20.6%, so economics alone does not explain the gap. Minnesota Virtual Academy Middle ranks 396th of 546. Special education results fell to 0th percentile (296th of 296) in 2025-2026, a flag worth asking about directly, and the student-teacher ratio has risen to 13.9.