Hilltop Elementary, Henderson MN

Original Research by School Decision on Hilltop Elementary

Hilltop Elementary is closed. The school district’s own records list it as such, and any parent researching it today will find a school that no longer enrolls students. This review covers what the school looked like in its final year of operation, using the most recent data available.

Hilltop served grades 4 and 5 in Henderson, Minnesota, a small historic river town in Sibley County. The town itself has a long but modest past: it lost its county seat more than a century ago, and its economy shifted toward agriculture, celebrated today with the annual Sauerkraut Days festival. The downtown core along Main Street holds a handful of restaurants, a public library, two museums, and a charter school. Parks and trails along the Minnesota River provide recreation, but the town is small, with limited commercial activity. Henderson’s population has been stable over recent decades, with no major new housing developments identified. The Le Sueur-Henderson School District is a consolidation of the former Henderson and Le Sueur districts. While Hilltop was the elementary building in Henderson, most district students attend Park Elementary (grades K-3) in Le Sueur and the shared middle and high school there as well. The district brief turned up no recent lasting changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax changes.

Because the school is closed, there is no current enrollment data, no demographic profile, no free-or-reduced-price lunch figures, no teacher-staffing information, and no discipline or attendance records. These are missing from the record, and a parent looking for a picture of the student body or school climate in its final years will not find it here.

What does remain is state testing data from the 2022-23 school year, the last year the school operated. In math, fourth graders posted a proficiency rate that was a clear strength, with a solid majority of students meeting state standards. Fifth grade math was more moderate, with roughly half of students reaching proficiency. In reading, results were mixed. Fourth grade reading proficiency landed below the majority mark, a modest outcome. Fifth grade reading was stronger, with nearly two-thirds of students scoring proficient. In science, only fifth graders are tested, and their proficiency rate was about half. All testing groups had full participation, so the results reflect the whole tested population.

A parent considering the Le Sueur-Henderson district today would need to look at the currently operating schools in Le Sueur, principally Park Elementary for the lower grades. Hilltop’s test scores suggest that in its last year of operation, the school had a few bright spots, particularly fourth grade math and fifth grade reading, alongside areas where performance was more modest. But that snapshot is all that is available. With the school shuttered, there is no present-day academic pathway, peer environment, or student support structure to describe here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 55% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 56% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 452%

School 52% · District 49% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 56% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Science

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 23% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median

This schoolLE SUEUR-HENDERSON 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 4Lower-income46%Higher-income58%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income52%Higher-income77%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income64%Higher-income74%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income37%Higher-income70%33 pp gap