The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 6% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Rush City Secondary
Rush City Secondary serves students in grades seven through twelve in a single building within the Rush City Public School District, a small district in east-central Minnesota. The school sits in the town of Rush City, a community of modest size located roughly north of the Twin Cities along the Interstate 35 corridor. The town’s character is shaped by a mix of residential areas, a historic downtown, an industrial park described as one of the larger ones on the stretch between the Twin Cities and Duluth, and the presence of a state correctional facility, which contributes to the local economy and population profile. The school itself is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of students who are Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, two or more races, and Black. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that is a notable share of the overall enrollment, though not the majority. The school enrollment is moderate in size for a combined middle and high school setting. The housing market in the area shows home values that sit below the state average, which may matter to families considering relocation. The district did not have publicly reported recent strategic changes or referendums that would alter the school’s day-to-day offerings, according to the information we reviewed.
Academically, the school’s state test results present a mixed picture that a parent will want to examine carefully. In math, the share of seventh graders scoring proficient was lower than the share of eighth graders scoring proficient. In English language arts, the pattern was similar: a smaller share of seventh graders were proficient compared to eighth graders. The science results for eighth graders were much lower than the math and English results for that grade, a sharp drop that a parent should ask the school about directly, particularly given that a change in the science assessment for that year may affect comparability with prior years. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, placed the school in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Chisago County. This is a soft spot in the school’s profile that families weighing academic outcomes will want to investigate further.
Because Rush City Secondary includes high school grades, you might expect a four-year graduation rate, but that metric was not available in the data provided. The school also did not report chronic absenteeism rates or other attendance metrics, so understanding how consistently students attend class would require follow-up with the school. Civil rights data, such as discipline rates or access to advanced coursework, was also absent, leaving gaps in the picture of school environment.
The school serves its community as the sole secondary option within the district, drawing students from Rush City and the surrounding rural area. The town itself offers some civic amenities like an aquatic center, a museum, and a regional airport, and the district’s schools appear integrated into the town rather than isolated on a separate campus. For a family considering this school, the key takeaway is that it serves a small, majority-white student body in a rural small-town setting with a modest free-lunch rate. The academic results, particularly in eighth-grade science and in the overall district comparison, are areas where a parent would want to ask what supports and interventions the school provides and how the school is working to raise proficiency. The absence of several standard metrics, including the graduation rate, means that some of the usual benchmarks for judging a secondary school are simply not on the table in this profile.
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