Best High Schools in Zip Code 56215

ZIP code 56215 in Benson, Minnesota is home to three high schools serving grades 6–12 or 7–12, all operating within the Benson Public School District and sharing the same campus address on Montana Avenue, with a combined high-school enrollment of 369 students. Benson Secondary is the comprehensive flagship school with 334 students — roughly 15 times the size of Heartland Girls Ranch (22 students) and 26 times the size of Benson Area Learning Center (13 students). The two smaller schools appear to be specialized or alternative settings, so families should compare them with the larger school cautiously.

Completion outcomes are the strongest part of the picture here. The district graduates 98.0% of its students, well above the state's 84.9%, with Benson Area Learning Center reporting 100.0% and Benson Secondary 97.5%, and both schools reporting 0.0% dropout compared with 4.2% statewide. Test proficiency tells a different story. Benson Secondary trails the state in every subject in 2025–26 — Math 26.6% versus 44.9%, Reading 35.9% versus 48.6%, and Science 13.0% versus 25.5% — and Science is its most persistent weak spot, with 8th grade at 11.1% and End-of-Course at 15.8%. Heartland Girls Ranch, which has the highest free/reduced lunch rate at 86.36% and the lowest student-teacher ratio at 7.7, posted a notable 25% Science result in 2024–25 but reported 0% Reading and Science in 2025–26. Benson Area Learning Center has the highest student-teacher ratio at 25.4, and its test scores are nearly all suppressed by the state — these blank values are unknown, not zeros, and should never be read as poor performance.

Overall, families moving to this area will find very high graduation and low dropout rates across the district, alongside academic proficiency that lags state averages at the largest school. Ratings have also shifted: Benson Secondary moved from the 36th percentile with 2 stars in 2024–25 to the 28th percentile with 1 star in 2025–26. With such small enrollments at the two specialized schools, single students can swing percentages dramatically, so their data should be interpreted with care.