Summary:
ZIP code 56542, covering Fosston, Minnesota, is served by exactly one high school: Fosston Secondary, a grades 7–12 campus with 256 students in the Fosston Public School District. With roughly 40 to 43 students per grade and 49.61% qualifying for free or reduced lunch, it is a small, economically mixed school with a favorable 13.3 student–teacher ratio. Because it is the only high school in the area, every statistic here describes that one campus.
The school's strengths are real and consistent. It has earned 4 stars for three straight years, ranking in the 75th–77th percentile of Minnesota high schools each time — notably higher than its own district, which rates 3 stars at the 67th percentile. Its 92.3% graduation rate beats the state's 84.9% by 7.4 points. Older students perform especially well: 11th grade math is 47.1% proficient versus 35.3% statewide, 10th grade reading is 51.4% versus 42.5%, and 8th grade reading is 56.0% versus 50.0%. All Grades reading (49.2%) sits just above the state's 48.6%.
The pressure points are concentrated rather than school-wide. All Grades math proficiency is 33.7%, 11.2 points below the state's 44.9%, and it fell 11.3 points in a single year while the state barely moved — a school-level swing worth watching. Seventh grade math is the weakest spot at 27.0% versus 40.3% state, and 8th grade math also trails (−8.3 points), while science lands below state at 21.7% versus 25.5%. The dropout rate of 7.6% is about 1.8 times the state's 4.2%, even as the graduation rate runs well above it. In short, this is a strong, well-regarded school whose struggles cluster in middle-grade math, science, and dropout prevention.
Thank you for your feedback!