The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Innovation Sci & Tech Middle
Innovation Sci & Tech Middle is a young, STEM-focused charter school in Coon Rapids that serves only sixth and seventh grade. It opened in 2020 as part of a charter school district that started with a single elementary campus and has been expanding its grade span each year, with a stated plan to eventually reach a PreK-12 configuration. For families looking at this school, the most immediate fact is its size: the middle school enrollment is very small, with a handful of students split across two grade levels. That scale shapes nearly every aspect of the student experience here.
The student body is majority Black, with a substantial Asian population and a very small number of white students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a common metric for economic need. The school is a charter, which means it is tuition-free and open to any student in Minnesota, and it operates independently of the local school district. Its curriculum is built around transdisciplinary project-based learning, an Innovation Lab with fabrication tools, and coding integrated across subjects. It is the kind of environment that would appeal to a family specifically seeking a hands-on, technology-infused program in a school small enough to know every student.
State assessment data for the most recent school year is available but paints a difficult picture. In both math and English language arts, the proficiency rates across tested grades were very low. The school’s overall proficiency index, a combined measure across subjects and grades, places it in the bottom quartile among districts in Anoka County, the group the state uses for comparison. This is a significant soft spot, and families should expect to look into this further with the school. The data that is available covers only one year, so there is no trend to examine. The science assessment results for eighth grade were suppressed by the state because the tested student group was too small to report. That suppression is a direct function of the school’s tiny enrollment.
Because this is a middle school serving only grades six and seven, there is no graduation rate to report. The school environment section also lacks data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, and course access. A family interested in Innovation Sci & Tech Middle should ask directly about teacher retention, class sizes, and the full slate of course offerings, since those details are not available in the public data.
Coon Rapids itself is a northern suburb of Minneapolis with a large, built-out residential footprint and commercial corridors like Coon Rapids Boulevard. It is a largely car-dependent environment, though it maintains an extensive network of parks and trails, including a walkway over the Mississippi River at the Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park. Major employers include a large health system, the local school district, and Honeywell Aerospace. The city experienced rapid growth in recent decades and projects continued steady population increases. Housing values in the area are roughly in line with the state median, and rents have been climbing.
The school building is located on Coon Rapids Boulevard, a main commercial artery, and the campus is part of a charter district that was new as of 2020. The district itself is still in a build-out phase, having expanded from a single elementary school to two campuses serving through seventh grade. For a family, this means choosing a school that is still defining its identity and growing into its full vision. The appeal is the STEM focus, the project-based approach, and the intimacy of a very small school community. The clear challenge is the academic performance data, which families will want to explore directly with the school leadership to understand the instructional context and any supports in place.
See more original research from School Decision →