The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Math. The lowest is 79% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hale Elementary
Hale Elementary is a regular public school in Minneapolis that serves only kindergarten through second grade. That short grade span is the single most important structural fact about it: any family enrolling here should plan on a transition to another school after second grade, either a different elementary that continues through fifth grade or a K-8 building. The school is not a magnet or charter, and no program offerings are reported.
The most recent state testing data comes from the 2020–21 school year and shows strong proficiency rates in both math and English language arts. However, those results are for third and fourth graders, grades that lie outside the school’s current K–2 range. The discrepancy could reflect a prior grade configuration or a data anomaly; a parent may want to ask the school directly which tests now apply and how younger students are assessed. Despite that caveat, the school’s overall proficiency index, drawn from the available testing, places it in the top quarter when compared with districts across Hennepin County.
The student body is predominantly White, with much smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, Black, and multiracial students. A relatively low share of students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a more affluent family income profile for the neighborhood the school draws from. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available.
The school sits in a south Minneapolis residential area. Minneapolis itself is a major urban center with a dense downtown, a large university campus, extensive parks and lakes, and a broad mix of employers including Target, the University of Minnesota, and General Mills. The housing market in the zip code surrounding the school shows home values above national medians, and rents are elevated as well, reflecting the desirability of this part of the city.
The parent district, Minneapolis Public Schools, has been under considerable fiscal strain. Enrollment has declined over the past several years, and the district closed three schools at the end of the 2022–23 year. A Comprehensive District Design, phased in starting fall 2021, restructured attendance boundaries, feeder patterns, and magnet placements. Voters rejected an operating levy increase in 2020 but renewed a technology capital levy in 2022. More recently, the district faced a projected budget deficit for the 2024–25 school year, which led to discussions of staff reductions and possible further closures. These district-level pressures may affect school assignment options, class sizes, and program stability for families in the feeder pattern that includes Hale.
Because Hale serves only early elementary, it reports no high school graduation rate, nor does it have chronic absenteeism or discipline data that would be expected for older grades. State testing data, while strong where it exists, comes from a year when the school may have covered a different grade band.
For a family looking for a neighborhood elementary start in a high-achieving, relatively homogenous setting within a large urban district that is actively restructuring, Hale Elementary presents strong academic indicators and a stable residential context. The key considerations are the limited grade span and the district’s ongoing financial and structural changes, which make it important to understand where students go after second grade and how future boundary adjustments might affect that path.
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