Summary:
ZIP code 56573 covers Perham, Minnesota, and is served by four schools — one elementary, one middle, and two high schools — all within the Perham-Dent Public School District, with a combined enrollment of about 1,671 students. The district itself ranks 74th of 458 Minnesota districts, in the 84th percentile with 4 stars, so families here are choosing among schools backed by a generally strong local system.
The flagship is Perham Senior High, ranked 51st of 473 high schools in 2025–2026 — the 89th percentile — and holding 4 stars with the same 89th percentile for three straight years. Its graduation rate is 88.3%, above the district's 85.5% and the state's 84.9%, and its science proficiency of 43.4% is far above the district (27.7%) and state (25.5%). Its dropout rate of 6.2%, however, exceeds the district's 5.0% and state's 4.2%. Heart of The Lake Elementary has the ZIP code's strongest math, 63.1%, versus 49.3% district and 44.9% state, and its rank has climbed from the 49th to the 63rd percentile over three years. Its reading is mixed: 48.2% overall, with 3rd grade at 58.2% against the state's 46.8% but 4th grade at 38.2% against 48.8%.
Prairie Wind Middle remains a 4-star school but its percentile has slipped from 79 to 72. Reading, at 53.9%, beats district and state, while math (43.4%) sits just below state and science (19.5%) falls below both district and state. Perham Area Learning Center is tiny, with 38 students, the highest free/reduced lunch rate (57.89%) and lowest student-teacher ratio (8.0) in the area; its 2025–2026 test scores are suppressed by the state and should be treated as unknown, not as evidence of weakness. Its graduation rate is 73.0% with a 0.0% dropout rate. Among the three larger schools, student-teacher ratios range from 14.3 to 18.4.
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