The top reported proficiency rate is 63% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Woodbury Leadership Academy
Woodbury Leadership Academy is a small district in Washington County, Minnesota, that operates as a single school serving kindergarten through eighth grade. While it is classified as a district, families and residents will experience it as one building with a unified academic program. A major change is underway: the academy launched a high school program starting with ninth grade in 2024-2025, with plans to add one grade per year until it serves kindergarten through twelfth grade by 2027-2028. This expansion fundamentally reshapes what the district offers, giving families a continuous K-12 pathway where previously they would have needed to transition to another district for high school. According to publicly reported information, the district has obtained a building to house its upper grades as the program grows.
On state assessments, the district’s performance varies by grade and subject, but overall it lands above the midpoint among Washington County’s districts on a composite proficiency measure. In math, the strongest results appear in fourth grade, where the share of students scoring proficient or above is high. Third and fifth grades also show above-average math performance. Sixth grade math dips noticeably, and that is a grade where a parent may want to ask the school about math support and curriculum. Seventh and eighth grade math falls in the middle range. In English language arts, the pattern is somewhat steadier across grades: third through sixth grade all show a majority of students proficient, with fifth grade particularly strong. Seventh and eighth grade reading proficiency is lower than the earlier grades, though still a majority in eighth. Science results are tested in fifth and eighth grade; fifth grade science is a moderate outcome, while eighth grade science is one of the softer areas and a parent might look into that further with the school.
The student body is diverse. White students make up the largest single group, followed by Asian students, then Black students, then students of two or more races, and then Hispanic students. This composition gives the school a multiracial peer environment that differs from many surrounding districts. Data on students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, as well as on students receiving special education services or English learner support, was not available in the records examined, so a family should ask the school directly about those supports and resources.
Chronic absenteeism, which is a measure of how many students miss a substantial number of school days, falls below the midpoint among the county’s districts, meaning it is higher than typical for the area. That is a soft spot the school may be working on. Per-pupil spending is in the lower range compared with other Washington County districts, which may reflect the district’s small size and single-site operations. No state testing data was present for high school grades because the high school program had just started at the time of the most recent available data; the assessment results reported here cover only grades three through eight.
The district's expansion into high school is the most significant change on the horizon. For families who have children currently in middle grades at Woodbury Leadership Academy, the new high school program means they may not need to switch districts for ninth grade. For families considering the area, the growth of the program adds a new option in the county’s educational landscape. The academy follows the Core Knowledge curriculum in its elementary grades, and the high school program is intended to build on that foundation, according to the district’s public communications.
Without a locale brief for the community itself, the narrative cannot speak to the town's housing market or local context. But within Washington County, Woodbury Leadership Academy stands out as a small, diverse district that is in the middle of a deliberate expansion, with academic performance that generally sits above the county midpoint, though with some grade-level variability and a higher-than-average chronic absenteeism rate that a family may want to explore.
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