Summary:
ZIP code 55342 is home to two schools, both part of the Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart district: Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Element, serving grades PK–5 with 186 students, and Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Seconda, serving grades 6–12 with 245 students. There is no separate middle school and no alternative school in this ZIP. The district as a whole ranks 217 of 458 Minnesota schools, at the 53rd percentile with 3 stars — but that middle-of-the-road ranking hides a big gap between the two buildings.
The elementary school is the clear bright spot. It ranked in the 95th percentile with 5 stars in 2023–2024 and the 92nd percentile with 5 stars in 2024–2025, slipping to the 70th percentile with 4 stars in 2025–2026. Even after that slide, its 2025–2026 proficiency beat the state in everything: math 58.1% vs. 44.9%, reading 54.8% vs. 48.6%, and science 38.5% vs. 25.5%. The secondary school is the opposite story, ranking 345 of 473 (27th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–2026 and falling below the state in all subjects — math 26.7%, reading 46%, and science 11.9%.
Two things stand out for parents. First, the performance gap is not explained by poverty: the elementary school has a higher free/reduced lunch rate (50.54% vs. 40.82%) yet outperforms the secondary school in every tested subject. Second, grade 8 looks like a turning point — grades 6 and 7 are near or above state in reading and near state in math, but grade 8 math falls to 19.4% and grade 8 science to 3.2%, with 11th grade math at 9.5%. The secondary school's graduation rate of 83.8% is close to the state's 84.9%, but its dropout rate of 9.6% is more than double the state's 4.2%. The elementary school also has a lower student-teacher ratio (11.4 vs. 14.9).
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