The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hiawatha Elementary
Hiawatha Elementary serves early elementary grades only, kindergarten through second grade, in a regular public school setting within the Minneapolis Public School District. This is a small school in terms of enrollment for its grade band, located in a residential area of south Minneapolis. Because it serves only the earliest grades, the school does not have a graduation rate, nor does it extend into the grades typically covered by high school accountability measures, so families will need to look ahead to understand the full academic trajectory their child would follow after second grade.
The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller but notable share of students identifying as two or more races, Hispanic, or Black. American Indian and Asian students are also part of the community in modest numbers. Just over a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a common indicator of household economic need. The school sits within the Minneapolis Public School District, which has seen significant structural changes in recent years. The district enacted a Comprehensive District Design starting in 2021 that fundamentally reshaped school pathways, attendance boundaries, and magnet program placements, which directly affects which elementary school feeds into which middle and high school. Families considering Hiawatha should understand that their child’s future school pathway beyond second grade has been altered by this district-wide restructuring. Additionally, the district closed three schools at the end of the 2022-23 school year due to budget pressures and declining enrollment, and it faced a substantial budget deficit for the 2024-25 year, with enrollment having dropped from a higher peak in earlier years to a lower count in 2023. A technology capital levy was renewed by voters in 2022, but a proposed operating levy increase was rejected in 2020, adding to ongoing fiscal constraints. These district financial and enrollment realities mean that program offerings, staffing, and school stability at Hiawatha and its feeder schools could shift over time.
Academic performance data is available only from the 2012-13 school year, which is notably dated. On math assessments given that year, the share of students scoring proficient or above was moderate across grades three, four, and five, landing just under half for third and fourth grades and a lower share for fifth grade. In English language arts, proficiency rates that year were lower for third and fourth graders, while fifth graders showed a higher rate. On the fifth-grade science assessment, a minority of students reached the proficient level. It is important to note that these results are more than a decade old and reflect a different assessment landscape; the state’s test name and cut scores have changed since then for some subjects, and families should consider whether these figures still represent the school’s current performance. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades for this school places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Hennepin County, but that comparison is based on the same old data, so a parent may want to ask the school or district for more recent results. Chronic absenteeism data and graduation data are not applicable here or were not reported, which is expected given that the school does not serve the grade levels where those metrics are typically measured.
Housing in the school’s zip code area is priced near the statewide median for Minnesota, with a typical home value in the mid-range for the metro area. Rents are moderate relative to the national context, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is slightly more than the typical rent, a pattern common in many urban areas. The neighborhood is part of a major city: Minneapolis is a densely built urban center with a strong downtown core, a large university campus, extensive parks and lakes, and a network of civic and cultural institutions. Street life is concentrated downtown and near the university, and public transit is available via bus and light rail. For a family living near Hiawatha Elementary, the immediate environment is one of established residential streets within a larger urban fabric.
Because the school stops at second grade, families will need to investigate the specific middle school and high school options their child would enter after Hiawatha, particularly given the district’s recent boundary and program changes. The school itself offers a picture of a small, neighborhood-oriented early elementary experience within a large, financially strained urban district. Its test results are old, and more current information should be sought directly from the school or district to make a fully informed choice.
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