Best Public Schools in Zip Code 55335

ZIP code 55335 in Gibbon, Minnesota is home to three public schools — GFW Elementary School (PK–5, 240 students), GFW Middle School (5–8, 121 students), and GFW High School (9–12, 211 students) — all operated by a single district, GFW Public Schools, which ranks 258th of 458 Minnesota districts.

The GFW Elementary School is the academic engine of the ZIP code. It matches or beats the state in Math (45.6% vs. 44.9%) and posts a strong Science result (34.4% vs. 25.5%), well ahead of its own district in both — and it does so while serving the highest free/reduced-lunch population here (53.33%). Its weak spot is early reading: 3rd grade Reading is at 28.6% against a state figure of 46.8%, though 4th and 5th grade reading are at or slightly above state level. The GFW Middle School is the weakest academic profile, below the state in all three subjects, including Science at 12.8% — the lowest proficiency figure in the area — and 7th grade Math at 18.9%.

The GFW High School tells two very different stories. It graduates 96.2% of students with a 0.0% dropout rate, far better than the state's 84.9% graduation rate. Yet Math proficiency is just 16.7% versus 44.9% statewide, the largest gap in the ZIP code, and Reading trails the state by 10.3 points. Notably, math weakens steadily as students move up: from roughly state-level in elementary, to 26.7% in middle school, to 16.7% in high school. Science, by contrast, improved at all three schools this year. For parents, the takeaway is a district strong on getting students to graduation, strongest at the elementary level, and in need of attention in middle and high school mathematics.