Summary:
ZIP code 56481 is home to a single high school — Verndale Secondary, a grades 7–12 school in Verndale, Minnesota with 231 students, part of the Verndale Public School District. Because it is the only high school in the area, the most useful comparisons are to the district, the state of Minnesota, and the school's own past years.
The school's clearest strengths are in getting students to graduation and in class size. Its 2024–2025 graduation rate of 91.4% is 6.5 percentage points above Minnesota's 84.9% and matches the district rate. The student–teacher ratio of 11.9 is relatively low, which can mean more individual attention. On the other hand, the dropout rate is 5.7%, above the state's 4.2%.
Academically, results are well below state averages. In 2025–2026, 14% of students were proficient in Math (state: 44.9%), 29.8% in Reading (state: 48.6%), and just 5.6% in Science (state: 25.5%) — Science is the weakest area, with 8th-grade Science at 3.1% versus 16.7% statewide. Reading is the strongest subject but still 18.8 points below the state. The school's state ranking fell from 276 of 480 (43rd percentile, 2 stars) in 2023–2024 to 396 of 473 (16th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–2026. The district also ranks at the 22nd percentile with 1 star. About 46.75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and with only 231 students, year-to-year swings can be large.
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