Howard Lake-waverly-winsted Middle, Howard Lake MN

Original Research by School Decision on Howard Lake-waverly-winsted Middle

Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Middle School serves grades five through eight as a regular public school within the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted district. It is located in the small city of Howard Lake, which sits on the south shore of a lake of the same name in Wright County, roughly west of the Twin Cities. The town developed around a railroad station and still has a historic downtown core; a cabinet-making firm is the dominant local employer, giving the community a light-industrial base alongside its residential character. Growth has been slow and steady over recent decades, and the area is part of the broader exurban fringe of the metro.

The school enrolls around a few hundred students, fairly evenly distributed across the four grade levels. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and very small numbers of students from other racial backgrounds. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

State assessment results from the most recent school year give a picture of academic performance. In reading, proficiency rates across grades five through eight ranged from about half to just over half of students meeting standards. That is a relative bright spot. In math, proficiency was lower, around a quarter to a third of students meeting the bar. Science results were the weakest, with roughly one in five fifth graders and one in five eighth graders scoring proficient. The school’s overall proficiency index, which combines all tested subjects and grades, placed it in the bottom quartile when compared to other districts across Wright County. Only a single year of assessment data was provided, so no trend is available. A parent may want to ask what recent efforts are underway in math and science instruction.

No information was available on course offerings, staffing ratios, discipline rates, attendance, or chronic absenteeism. Because the school serves only middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The district itself, according to publicly reported sources, had no major recent changes such as referendums, boundary shifts, or curriculum overhauls that were flagged, but a parent may want to follow up with the district office for any upcoming initiatives.

Housing in the area is broadly in line with statewide values, and the local job market is anchored by a sizable manufacturing employer. The town has a compact downtown and a lakefront, and it hosts the county fair each year. For families considering this school, the picture is one of a small, predominantly white middle school in a slow-growing exurban community, where reading achievement is a relative strength compared to math and science, and where the overall proficiency profile is below the midpoint of the county’s districts.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 34%

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 34%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 518%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

This schoolHOWARD LAKE-WAVERLY-WINSTED, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income59%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income54%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income46%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income58%Higher-income58%0 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income21%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income40%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income33%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income39%14 pp gap