Summary:
ZIP code 55349 (Howard Lake, MN area) contains 6 schools serving grades K–12 across two districts — Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted and Meeker and Wright Special Education — with enrollment heavily concentrated in the two comprehensive district schools. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Sec. (411 students) and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Middle (393 students) together enroll 804 of the area's 862 students (93.3%). The remaining four programs are very small, ranging from 7 to 24 students, and include Hlww Alternative Learning Program, Step TD Program, Journeys Alternative Program, and Trek Program.
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Middle is the academic standout by rank: 237 of 546 schools (57th percentile, 3 stars) in 2025-2026, with reading proficiency of 52.1% — above its district's 45.2% and the state's 48.6%. Its math and science, however, sit below state averages, and it has the highest student-teacher ratio on the list at 20.5. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Sec. is the completion standout, with a 95.0% graduation rate and 0.9% dropout rate versus 84.9% and 4.2% statewide, plus science above state in both recent years. Its overall rank, though, slipped from 219 of 480 (54th percentile, 3 stars) in 2023-2024 to 286 of 473 (40th percentile, 2 stars) in 2025-2026, and its reading swung from 56.12% to 29.4%.
Math is the clearest shared weakness, running well below state at both comprehensive schools. Science splits by level — above state at the high school, below state at the middle school. The small programs cannot be judged on achievement: test scores for Journeys Alternative Program and Trek Program are suppressed by the state, and Step TD Program has none listed, so those results are unknown rather than zero. These programs do report intensive staffing: Journeys has 66.67% free/reduced lunch and a 2.3 student-teacher ratio; Trek, with 7 students, has 2.5; Step TD has 5.7.
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