Willow River Secondary
WILLOW RIVER · MN · WILLOW RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT · Public · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
MOOSE LAKE SECONDARY → EAST CENTRAL SENIOR SECONDARY → BARNUM SECONDARY → McGregor Secondary → CROMWELL-WRIGHT SECONDARY → WRENSHALL SECONDARY → ISLE SECONDARY → HINCKLEY-FINLAYSON SECONDARY →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 2 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 33% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 34% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 90% (Bottom 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Willow River Secondary compares for families
What families should know about Willow River Secondary.
- ▸ LocallyMN students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+7 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: MOOSE LAKE SECONDARY, EAST CENTRAL SENIOR SECONDARY, BARNUM SECONDARY and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Moderate — some AP / advanced course access
Bottom 33% of US high schools
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 34% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Targeted Assistance eligible
35-39% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Targeted Assistance
35-39% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The school can receive Title I funds targeted to identified students (not schoolwide).
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $16,778/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the strongest early indicator of dropout, transfer-out, and family disengagement. A school's absenteeism trend forecasts its enrollment trend 1-3 years out.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -0.2%/year, projecting from 2024's 205 students:
≈ 2 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $15,927 per student in district revenue, the 2 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $31,854/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOOSE LAKE SECONDARY MOOSE LAKE |
Public | 8.4 | 185 | +5.1% |
| EAST CENTRAL SENIOR SECONDARY FINLAYSON |
Public | 9.6 | 217 | +10.7% |
| BARNUM SECONDARY BARNUM |
Public | 14.9 | 210 | -15.7% |
| McGregor Secondary MCGREGOR |
Public | 29.8 | 142 | -3.4% |
| CROMWELL-WRIGHT SECONDARY CROMWELL |
Public | 24.9 | 98 | -15.5% |
| WRENSHALL SECONDARY WRENSHALL |
Public | 29.8 | 106 | -17.8% |
| ISLE SECONDARY ISLE |
Public | 33.0 | 120 | -9.8% |
| HINCKLEY-FINLAYSON SECONDARY HINCKLEY |
Public | 21.6 | 270 | -4.9% |