Eden Valley Secondary, Eden Valley MN

Original Research by School Decision on Eden Valley Secondary

Eden Valley Secondary is a regular public school serving grades seven through twelve in the small rural town of Eden Valley, about seventy miles west of the Twin Cities. It is part of the Eden Valley-Watkins School District. The town itself blends residential living with local commerce, featuring a mix of cafes and family-owned shops, a growing industrial park, and a surrounding agricultural community. The school sits within the town rather than on a separate campus, and the original high school building has been added onto over the years. Annual community events like Valley Days anchor civic life, and the area is known for its proximity to a dozen nearby lakes. Eden Valley’s population has seen a slight decline in past decades but recent estimates suggest modest growth.

The student body is moderate in size for a combined middle and high school. The enrollment is predominantly white, with a much smaller share of Hispanic students and even smaller numbers of students identifying as two or more races, Black, Asian, or American Indian. Roughly a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that falls within common ranges for small-town Minnesota schools.

Because Minnesota’s state testing program covers only certain grade levels, the available academic data for Eden Valley Secondary comes from grades seven and eight. In math, proficiency rates in those grades cluster around half of students meeting standards. In English language arts, rates are similar, with a modest gap between the two tested grades. In eighth-grade science, proficiency is notably weaker, with a relatively low share of students meeting the state benchmark. These results come from a single year’s assessments, and the state changed the science test and its scoring cut points recently, so direct trend comparisons are not possible. Looking across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among the three districts in Meeker County, which means that while it is not the lowest performer in the county, it sits behind the median district in terms of combined math, reading, and science results.

The school serves high school grades, but no graduation rate was available in the data. That is an unusual omission for a school that includes a twelfth-grade class, and a parent considering this school may want to ask the administration directly about four-year graduation rates and how many students complete on time. Similarly, data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, and staffing were not reported here, so those dimensions remain uncharacterized.

No recent district-level changes of lasting parent relevance, such as referenda, curriculum shifts, or property-tax adjustments, were found in publicly available sources. The school’s website and district communications would be the best place to learn about any current initiatives or upcoming decisions.

Eden Valley Secondary offers a combined middle and high school experience in a small-town setting where the school is integrated into the fabric of the community. Academic performance on state tests is mixed, with math and reading results around the midway mark and science results lower. For a family looking at this school, following up on high school outcomes and graduation data would fill an important gap in the picture.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

90-94%Cohort of 72 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

649 schools plotted. 88 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 749%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 25 pts above state median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 32 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 52%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Science

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolEDEN VALLEY-WATKINS SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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 8Lower-income33%Higher-income49%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income53%Higher-income60%6 pp gap