Summary:
Vermilion Country School is the only high school serving ZIP code 55790, located in Tower, Minnesota, and it educates 50 students in grades 7–12 as its own district.
The school's profile is mixed. Its clearest bright spot is completion: in 2023–24 it reported a 92.3% graduation rate and a 0.0% dropout rate, well ahead of the 2024–25 state rates of 84.9% and 4.2% (different years, so this is a rough benchmark). Test proficiency tells a different story. In 2025–26, math proficiency for all grades was 0%, an exact reported figure rather than a state-suppressed value, compared with about 44.9% statewide. Reading for all grades improved from 11.11% in 2024–25 to 22.7% in 2025–26, but that is still less than half the state's 48.6%; 10th-grade reading was 31.3% versus 42.5% statewide. Science for all grades was 16.1% against the state's 25.5%, and Science End of Course was 16.7% against 35%. Several grade-level scores are suppressed by the state for privacy, so those comparisons cannot be made.
Ranking has slipped from its earlier peak. In 2018–19 the school placed 251 of 492 (49th percentile, 2 stars); by 2025–26 it was 374 of 473 (21st percentile, 1 star), a 28-point percentile drop and a bottom-quartile position, though still above its 2016–17 percentile of 16. Context matters: 80% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch and the student–teacher ratio is 9.2, indicating a small, high-need population where a low ratio may support individual attention. With just 50 students, year-to-year swings and suppressed scores are expected, so families should weigh the strong graduation outcomes alongside the low proficiency rates and read these numbers with caution.
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