WEST CENTRAL AREA LEARNING CENTER

MELROSE · MN · WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION DISTRICT · Public · K-12 combined

Public 🏛 WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION DISTRICT →

Similar nearby schools

Most similar nearby schools

BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. → WCED Credit Recovery → MELROSE SECONDARY → SAUK CENTRE SECONDARY → Albany Area High School → UPSALA SECONDARY → HOLDINGFORD SECONDARY → ALC - Holdingford →

📋 At a glance

Programs & features

Academic signals

🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools
🎓 4-yr grad rate: 49% (Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How WEST CENTRAL AREA LEARNING CENTER compares for families

What families should know about WEST CENTRAL AREA LEARNING CENTER.

▸ LocallyMN students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+7 points).
▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST., WCED Credit Recovery, MELROSE SECONDARY and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

SAT/ACT test-takers

11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test

Test-taking intensity

0.0

takers per 100 students in grades 9-12

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 10% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

4-year graduation rate

49%

Range: 40–59%

4-year cohort size

Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years

Compared against

17,988

US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)

Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.

% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)

0.0%

Strong attendance culture among teachers.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Targeted Assistance eligible

35-39% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Targeted Assistance

38.1%

FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).

0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

35-39% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The school can receive Title I funds targeted to identified students (not schoolwide).

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days

4.8%

Below 10% — strong attendance culture. Chronic absence is a leading indicator of dropout and disengagement; a low rate signals families staying connected to the school.

Students absent 15+ days

Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -23.0%/year, projecting from 2024's 21 students:

2025

2027

2029

A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

School	Type	Miles	HS enrollment	Trend
BEACON PROGRAM W CENTRAL ED. DIST. MELROSE	Public	0.0	—	—
WCED Credit Recovery MELROSE	Public	0.0	—	—
MELROSE SECONDARY MELROSE	Public	0.7	505	+11.5%
SAUK CENTRE SECONDARY SAUK CENTRE	Public	7.3	393	+12.6%
Albany Area High School ALBANY	Public	12.6	584	+13.0%
UPSALA SECONDARY UPSALA	Public	14.9	107	-7.0%
HOLDINGFORD SECONDARY HOLDINGFORD	Public	17.4	345	+10.2%
ALC - Holdingford HOLDINGFORD	Public	17.4	—	—