Summary:
ZIP code 55016 has two public middle schools serving grades 6–8: Cottage Grove Middle School with 1,005 students and Oltman Middle School with 956 students, for 1,961 students total. Both belong to South Washington County Schools, a district ranked 144 of 458, in the 69th percentile with 3 stars.
Oltman Middle School is the stronger performer and is improving. It ranks 212 of 546 (61st percentile, 3 stars) in 2025-26, up from 226 of 519 and 244 of 545 in prior years. Its all-grade Math proficiency is 41.9%, which is 10.3 points above Cottage Grove's 31.6%, and it leads every Math grade level. Oltman also raised all-grade Math by 4.51 points year over year, while Cottage Grove slipped slightly. Cottage Grove Middle School ranks 279 of 546 (49th percentile) and dropped from 3 stars to 2 stars. Reading is much closer: Oltman leads all-grade Reading by only 0.9 points (45.2% vs 44.3%). Cottage Grove's clearest bright spot is 7th grade Reading at 46.9%, above Oltman's 39.2% and the state's 43.5%.
Science is the shared red flag: both schools report 14.2% proficiency at all grades and in 8th grade, far below district and state figures, and both trail the district and state in all three all-grade subjects. Notably, Cottage Grove Middle School has the lower student-teacher ratio (16.2 vs 19.1) and slightly lower free/reduced lunch (27.66% vs 29.6%), yet posts weaker and declining results — suggesting other school-level factors matter more than these two indicators alone.
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