Best Public Schools in Zip Code 56241

ZIP code 56241 covers Granite Falls, Minnesota, and contains 2 schools serving 605 students in all, both part of the Yellow Medicine East district: Yellow Medicine East Secondary, which serves grades 6–12 with 321 students, and Bert Raney Elementary School, which serves grades PK–5 with 284 students. There is no standalone middle school and no alternative school, so grades 6–8 are included in the secondary school. The district as a whole is rated 299 of 458 in Minnesota — the 35th percentile, with 2 stars — and both schools carry that same district-level rating.

Reading is the clearest common strength. Bert Raney Elementary School scores 47.0% proficient in reading and Yellow Medicine East Secondary scores 45.7%, both close to the state's 48.6%, and several grade levels beat the state — elementary 4th grade reading (54.5 vs 48.8) and secondary 7th and 10th grade reading (50.0 vs 43.5 and 44.8 vs 42.5). Math and science are the weaker areas. The secondary school's math proficiency is 20.4%, well below the district's 27.3% and the state's 44.9%, and every secondary math grade level trails the state, with 8th grade especially low. At the elementary school, science fell from 38.89% to 11.4%, a 27.5-point drop far larger than the district's or state's change.

The two schools are moving in different directions. The secondary school improved its rank from 335/450 (26th percentile, 1 star) to 287/473 (39th percentile, 2 stars), and its graduation rate of 86.2% and dropout rate of 3.9% both beat the state. The elementary school's rank percentile slipped from 47th to 33rd across three years, though it serves a higher-poverty population (53.17% free/reduced lunch vs 38.01%) and still posts higher overall math and reading scores than the secondary school, with a lower student-teacher ratio of 11.2 vs 12.3. Because the schools are ranked in different comparison groups, their percentiles are useful but not perfectly equivalent.