The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 7% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Falls Secondary
Falls Secondary serves students from sixth through twelfth grade under one roof in International Falls, a small border city on the Rainy River directly across from Fort Frances, Ontario. The school is the sole secondary campus for the International Falls School District, drawing from a community whose economy has long been anchored by the paper and wood-products industry, particularly the Packaging Corporation of America mill, which is the dominant local employer. That economic base has been under pressure. The mill has seen significant layoffs in recent years, and the city’s population has been declining over the long term. Families considering Falls Secondary are looking at a school in a community that is stable in character but not growing.
The student body of roughly five hundred is predominantly white, with a notable American Indian population that makes up about one in ten students. Just over two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that gives a rough measure of the economic makeup of the community. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and serves its full secondary grade span.
On state assessments, the picture is uneven and a parent will want to weigh it carefully. In reading and language arts, the sixth-grade cohort posted a result where roughly half of students met proficiency standards, while seventh and eighth grades came in lower, around four in ten and three in ten respectively. In mathematics, the numbers were softer across all three tested grades, with proficiency rates below a third in each case. A single year of eighth-grade science results showed a very small share of students reaching the proficient level, though the state noted that both the assessment name and the cut scores for science changed that year, which means the result is not directly comparable to prior years. Across the subjects and grades that were tested, the school’s combined proficiency index placed it below the midpoint among Koochiching County’s three school districts. A parent should note this is a small comparison set — just three districts total — so a bottom-quartile placement within that group still does not give a wide view of how this school performs relative to the rest of the state.
No graduation rate was reported for Falls Secondary in the data provided, and no chronic absenteeism figures were available, so a parent who wants to understand how students finish or how consistently they attend should ask the school directly.
The district brief turned up no recently reported changes to programs, leadership, or facilities that would shape a family’s decision, so there is no news here about new initiatives or disruptions. The broader community context is what matters most. International Falls is a place where the built environment is modest — a traditional downtown with small shops, some big box retailers on the edge, residential neighborhoods of single-family homes, and industrial facilities along the river. Winters are extremely cold, the city’s nickname “Icebox of the Nation” is earned, and street life quiets down accordingly. For families who value access to the outdoors, the area offers Voyageurs National Park a short drive east, Rainy Lake for boating and fishing, and a cross-border connection to Canada. Air travel to the Twin Cities is available from the local airport.
Housing in the area is priced well below state and national medians, a reflection of the region’s economic contraction and remote location. That affordability is a practical consideration for a family moving in. The school itself is a comprehensive secondary building serving all grades from middle school through high school, so a student who enters in sixth grade will stay in the same building through graduation. There is no data on Advanced Placement or dual-credit course availability in the provided materials, so families who want to know about postsecondary pathways beyond the standard diploma should reach out to the school. The lack of information on special education identification rates and English learner counts is another gap a prospective parent may want to close with a direct inquiry.
Falls Secondary is a district school in a small city whose economic mainstay has been shrinking. Its academic results, based on the single year of state testing data available, are mixed and on the lower end when compared with the other districts in the same county. The school serves a student population that is overwhelmingly white but also includes a meaningful American Indian presence, and it operates in a community that, while not growing, offers a low-cost housing market and proximity to national forest and lake country. A family considering this school should expect to ask the school directly about graduation rates, college and career programming, and what support is in place for the students whose test scores came in below proficiency.
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