The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on St. Charles Elementary
St. Charles Elementary is a regular public school in the small, rural town of Saint Charles in southeastern Minnesota’s Winona County. It serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade, and its enrollment makes it a school of roughly average size for an elementary building in a community of this scale. The student body is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic population and a smaller share of students who identify as two or more races; Black, Asian, and Native American students are present in very small numbers or absent. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic mix of this farming community and commuter town between Rochester and Winona.
State testing data is available for the 2024-25 school year across grades three through six in math and English language arts, and for grade five in science. In math, proficiency rates land in the mid- to upper-fiftieth percentile across the four tested grades, with third grade slightly higher. In English language arts, performance is more varied: third and fifth graders post proficiency rates in the upper fifties to low sixties, fourth grade dips to the mid-forties, and sixth grade reaches into the low seventies. Fifth-grade science proficiency is lower than both math and ELA at that grade level. The overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades places this school in the top quartile when compared to other school districts within Winona County. That is a relative strength state testing can support, and it suggests a solid academic floor for a community elementary school. The trend data covers only a single year, so there is no basis for drawing a direction.
Because the school serves only through sixth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and no chronic absenteeism data is available in the underlying records. Information on special education and English learner populations was also missing from the data. A parent or resident looking for those details may want to follow up with the district office.
The school operates as a regular public school within the St. Charles Public School District. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent publicly reported changes, so it appears the district has entered a period of relative stability in operations and leadership, or at least not one marked by visible news.
Saint Charles itself is a compact, walkable small town with a traditional Main Street, a handful of historic buildings, and a set of civic anchors that include several city parks, an aquatic center, a golf course, a public library, and a senior center. Whitewater State Park is a short drive north. The town has experienced modest population growth over the last decade, and housing values as of the most recent measure are near the state benchmark for Minnesota. The local economy historically relied on agriculture and a poultry processing plant, though the status of that plant after a fire is unclear from available public information. Many residents likely commute to Rochester or Winona for work.
For families, St. Charles Elementary presents as a straightforward community school in a small rural town with better-than-average test proficiency relative to other districts in the county. It does not offer the program breadth or career pathways that a larger district might, and the grade band stops before the years when such offerings typically begin. The peer environment is one the data shows as predominantly white with a meaningful Hispanic minority. The setting is quiet, traditional, and connected to the landscape of southeastern Minnesota. A parent who wants a core academic program in a stable, small-town public school and who is comfortable with the trade-offs of rural location and limited specialization will find this a reasonable fit.
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