Summary:
ZIP code 56172 covers Slayton, Minnesota, and is home to three public schools — all part of the Murray County Central Schools district, which ranks 31 of 458 Minnesota districts (93rd percentile, 5 stars). Together the three buildings enroll 721 students and split the grades cleanly: Murray County Central Elementary serves PK–1 (137 students), West Elementary serves grades 2–6 (256 students), and Murray County Central High School serves grades 7–12 (328 students). Because the high school houses grades 7 and 8, it also acts as the area's middle school.
West Elementary is the standout: 5 stars and ranked 64 of 869 Minnesota elementary schools (93rd percentile), beating the state in every subject — math 74.3 vs 44.9, reading 66.0 vs 48.6, and science 39.3 vs 25.5. The high school holds 4 stars (105 of 473 high schools) with strong outcomes: a 95.9% graduation rate vs the state's 84.9% and a 4.0% dropout rate vs 4.2%. It is above the state in reading and science but below in math (39.6 vs 44.9). Murray County Central Elementary has no test scores because the state does not test PK–1 students, and its blank student-teacher ratio is unknown, not zero.
Comparing buildings, the widest gap is in math: 34.7 points between West Elementary (74.3) and the high school (39.6). West's 6th-grade math reaches 75.0 while the high school's 7th-grade math is 37.7 — a 37.3-point drop exactly at the 6th-to-7th grade building transition, and the only grade-level result below state (37.7 vs 40.3). West Elementary also has a much smaller student-teacher ratio (9.3 vs 18.0) while serving a higher free/reduced-lunch share (42.19% vs 27.44%). With roughly 50–55 students per grade, a handful of students can shift a percentage, so single-year figures should be read with care.
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