The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in English language arts. The lowest is 41% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Friendship Academy of Arts-primary
Friendship Academy of Arts-Primary is a charter school in Minneapolis that serves a short, concentrated grade span: kindergarten through second grade. At roughly this size for its band and drawing from an applicant pool across the city, the school operates as a regular public charter within the broader Friendship Academy of the Arts network, which has made notable facility changes in recent years. The school was initially part of a two-site arrangement, with a primary location for the earliest grades and a separate intermediate site for older students. That arrangement ended recently, and the school, as publicly reported, consolidated all grade levels to a single address after operating that split model for several years.
The school sits in the heart of Minneapolis, a major urban center. The community context is one of a dense, walkable, amenity-rich city: a downtown with professional sports venues, major arts institutions such as the Guthrie Theater and the Walker Art Center, the main campus of the University of Minnesota, and the Mississippi riverfront. Families drawn to this school are generally choosing an urban charter option within a large metro area that offers deep cultural and civic resources. The housing market in the school's vicinity is broadly in line with state-level home values, and rents have been rising, consistent with national trends.
The student population is almost entirely Black, with a very small share of white and Hispanic students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education identification and English learner status were not available in the materials reviewed, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports students with disabilities and multilingual learners.
State testing data is available for the school, though a parent should read it with two important caveats. First, the assessment underwent a name change in the testing year reported, which can affect comparability with earlier years. Second, because this is a primary school that ends at grade two, the test results come from grade levels that are not part of the school's own instructional program: third through sixth grade. The data shown is for the school's former intermediate site's students, not for children attending the K-2 primary program at the time. So the proficiency numbers reflect the performance of older students who were enrolled in the Friendship Academy network, not the primary grades themselves. For the younger children who would have been at the separate primary site, no state testing data was available for their grade levels because Minnesota does not test in kindergarten, first, or second grade. That means the test results a parent sees for this school do not directly represent the K-2 program's academic outcomes. With that said, for the students tested across grades three through six in math, reading, and science, the school's overall proficiency index placed it in the top quarter compared with all other districts in Hennepin County. That is a strong relative showing for the network's intermediate grades, but a parent considering the K-2 primary program would want to understand how the school's early literacy and math instruction connects to those later results.
There is no graduation rate for this school because it does not serve high school grades. Data on chronic absenteeism was also not available. Program offerings beyond the arts-focused charter mission were not surfaced in the materials, so a parent would want to ask about the art curriculum, enrichment activities, and any before- or after-school care available for the youngest students.
For a family seeking a small, arts-oriented charter school for the earliest elementary years, located in an urban environment with deep cultural resources, this school represents a specific slice of the Minneapolis educational landscape. The network's recent consolidation to a single site simplifies the daily logistics that previously required families to manage two locations. The strong state testing performance for the network's older grades may be a positive signal, but a parent should clarify how the primary program's early learning approach leads into that trajectory.
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