The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Riverway Secondary
Riverway Secondary is a charter school in Winona, Minnesota, serving grades seven through twelve. It is part of the Riverway Learning Community Charter district, a single-school charter network. The school enrolls a small student population for its grade band, and it runs as a regular public school with charter governance. Winona itself is a Mississippi River bluff-country city that hosts two universities, a range of corporate headquarters including Fastenal and RTP Company, and a compact downtown woven together with the university campuses and civic institutions. The housing market in the zip code around the school has seen rent increases in recent years, while home values have been more stable, consistent with national trends.
Academically, Riverway Secondary’s state assessment results place it in the bottom quarter of schools within its county comparison set, relative to other districts in Winona County. In math, the share of students meeting state proficiency standards was under a third in grade seven and lower in grade eight. In reading, the proficiency rates were just above and just below the two-fifths mark for the two tested grades, respectively. Science results for grade eight were lower still: about one in ten students demonstrated proficiency. A single year of data is available for these tests, so no trend direction can be inferred. The multi-year trend data also only contains one point, meaning year-to-year change is not observable. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades is the lowest among the county districts that reported data. For a family considering this school, the test results indicate that academic attainment in core subjects is generally lower than in most other area schools.
The student body is predominantly white, with a noticeable share of students identifying as two or more races. About four out of five students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which is a high proportion and signals that the school serves a community with significant economic need. Data on special populations, such as students with disabilities or English learners, was not reported, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
Several key metrics that are typically available for high schools are missing from the data. The four-year graduation rate is not reported; this may be because the school is small or because the state has not yet published that figure for this charter. Chronic absenteeism data is also absent. Without these, it is difficult to assess how well the school retains students through to graduation or what the attendance patterns look like. Program offerings, including Advanced Placement, career and technical education, or dual-credit options, were not provided in the available data, so families should contact the school to learn about course pathways.
The school is located at 1200 Storrs Pond Road in Winona. The district itself, Riverway Learning Community Charter, has no recent publicly reported changes such as property-tax shifts, curriculum overhauls, or referendums that came up in available research.
Riverway Secondary offers a small-school setting in a mid-sized river city with a university presence and a varied local economy. For a family that values small class sizes and a charter environment, this school presents an option, but the academic proficiency numbers are lower than most peer districts in the county, and several typical high-school outcome measures are missing from the public record. A parent exploring this school will want to visit, review course offerings directly, and ask about graduation rates and student support structures, especially given the high level of economic disadvantage among the enrollment.
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