The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Mmsa Elementary School
MMSA Elementary School is a charter school in Saint Paul serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the Minnesota Math and Science Academy network, a single-school district. For a parent considering this school, the first thing to understand is that it is a choice option—enrollment is not geographically assigned, and families elect to send their children here. The school is small for an elementary, with an enrollment that is notably compact across the grade levels, and the building is located on Jenks Avenue in the eastern part of the city.
The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a very small share of White and Asian students. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. That level of concentrated poverty is one of the highest in the area, and it shapes what the school is working with. Data on English learner status and special education identification were not reported, so those figures are unknown; a parent may want to ask the school directly about how they serve students with those needs.
On state assessments, proficiency rates are low across all tested grades and subjects. In math, the portion of students meeting standards declines sharply from third to fifth grade, with fifth-grade math proficiency especially minimal. In English language arts, proficiency rates are somewhat higher than in math but still well below most schools in the area. In fifth-grade science, no students reached the proficient level. Compared to other districts in Ramsey County, MMSA Elementary’s overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quarter. Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to consider, and chronic absenteeism data were not available, so that dimension of student engagement is not captured here. The academic picture is clear: the school serves a population facing significant economic barriers, and its tested outcomes are among the lowest in the county. A parent should expect to ask what academic interventions, tutoring, or enrichment programs are in place and how the school tracks growth beyond proficiency.
That said, the school does not have data on course access, staffing ratios, or discipline events, so the supports and environment inside the building are not visible from the records available here. The school’s website was not provided, and the district brief found no recent strategic changes or initiatives to report. This leaves a gap: a family considering MMSA Elementary would need to visit, talk to staff, and observe classrooms to understand the actual daily experience.
The broader context of Saint Paul matters. The city is Minnesota’s capital and the second-largest in the state, with a dense, diverse population and a strong civic infrastructure—parks, museums, professional sports venues, and the state government complex. Housing values in the ZIP code are below the state and national benchmarks, and rents have been rising modestly. The city’s economy is anchored by state and county government, healthcare, and hospitality tied to downtown venues. For a family already living in this part of Saint Paul, the school is a neighborhood accessible option, though as a charter it draws from across the city. The charter structure means the school has autonomy over its curriculum and staffing, but that also means it operates independently of the larger Saint Paul Public Schools system, with its own governance board.
In sum, MMSA Elementary is a small, high-poverty charter school with very low state test results and limited publicly available data on its internal operations. The strengths that might attract a family—its small size, the potential for a focused math-and-science identity, the charter’s flexibility—are not backed up by published program details or outcome trends. A parent looking here should press for concrete information on how the school supports struggling readers, what professional development teachers receive, and what enrichment is available beyond the tested subjects. Without that, the numbers alone paint a challenging picture.
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