Winona Senior High

Winona Senior High is a public high school serving grades 9–12 with 849 students in Winona, Minnesota, and it is the largest high school in its immediate area, part of the Winona Area Public School District. It is ranked 300th of 473 Minnesota high schools in 2025–2026 — 37th percentile, 2 stars — and has held a 2-star rating every year from 2015–2016 through 2025–2026, with a recent peak of 49th percentile in 2021–2022.

Academically, reading is the clearest challenge: 10th-grade reading proficiency was 23.9% in 2025–2026, equal to the district but far below the state's 42.5%. Eleventh-grade math was 38.7% proficient, equal to the district and above the state's 35.3%. Science has been inconsistent — 34.84% in 2024–2025, above both district and state, but 23.5% in 2025–2026 End-of-Course science, below the state's 35.0%. Comparative subgroup rankings show uneven results: Special Education Students rank in the 4th percentile (0 stars) and Low Socio Economic Status Students in the 18th percentile (1 star), while Male Students rank higher, at the 36th percentile. These rankings measure how well the school serves particular populations compared with other schools statewide, not a judgment about the students themselves.

Graduation outcomes are stronger than test scores alone suggest. The 2024–2025 graduation rate was 90.7%, above the district's 84.0% and the state's 84.9%, and the dropout rate was 3.2%, below both. Among nearby schools, that trails Lewiston-Altura Secondary (96.4%) and Rushford-Peterson Senior High (94.3%) but far exceeds Winona Area Learning Center (63.6%) and River Valley Academy Alternative Learning Center (40.0%), which serve much higher-poverty populations. Notably, Lewiston-Altura Secondary has a similar free/reduced-lunch rate (32.64% vs. 33.69%) yet much higher reading proficiency and a much lower student-teacher ratio (10.6 vs. 17.9). Winona's own free/reduced-lunch share has fallen from 38.37% three years ago to 33.69%.