Summary:
ZIP code 56081 — Saint James, Minnesota — is served by a single high school: St. James Middle/High School, a combined grades 6–12 campus with 566 students in the St. James Public School District. Just over half the student body (53.53%) qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student-teacher ratio is 14.2.
Academically, the school trails Minnesota across the board. In 2025–2026, all-grade proficiency was 34.7% in math (state 44.9%), 40.6% in reading (state 48.6%) and 18.6% in science (state 25.5%). Against its own district, the school matches the district exactly in science, is essentially level in reading (40.6% vs 41.2%) but lags badly in math (34.7% vs 42.7%) — an 8-point internal gap suggesting the elementary grades carry the district figure. There are bright spots: 8th-grade math at 47.4% is the only grade-level result that beats the state (42.3%), and 6th-grade reading at 50% is the school's highest single figure, though still below the state's 53.4%.
Completion outcomes are the most concerning element: the graduation rate is 69.1% against 84.9% statewide, and the 18.5% dropout rate is more than four times the state's 4.2%. Upper-grade math is a specific weak point — 11th-grade math sits at 19.7% versus 35.3% statewide, the widest gap in the data — and 8th-grade science, at 11.5%, is the lowest figure reported (state 16.7%). The school's state percentile slipped from 47 to 38 over two years while holding a 2-star rating; math improved year over year (+2.2 points) while reading and science each fell roughly 2 points. Since each grade holds about 80 students, small 4–5 point differences amount to only a few students — the steadier signals are the double-digit math deficit, the science shortfall, and student completion.
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