The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Loring Elementary
Loring Elementary is a regular public school in the Minneapolis Public School District, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits in the city’s residential neighborhood on the north side, a setting within a dense urban environment known for its lakes, parks, and a downtown cultural and economic core. For a family considering this school, the context matters: Minneapolis is a major city with a large public school district that has been navigating declining enrollment and budget pressures, including recent school closures and a restructuring of pathways and attendance boundaries under the Comprehensive District Design.
The school itself is a small elementary. Its student body is diverse by background. The largest single group within the enrollment is Black students, followed by White students, students who identify as two or more races, Hispanic students, Asian students, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. A substantial share of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of the economic circumstances many families bring to the school.
State assessment results are available for the most recent testing year for math, English language arts, and science across grades three through five. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above in third grade was moderate, but the rate fell in fourth grade and dropped again in fifth grade, where it was low. In English language arts, the pattern was different: the share of students scoring proficient in fourth and fifth grades was higher than it was in third grade, though overall proficiency rates for the school were in a range that many parents would consider an area to learn more about. In science, which is tested in fifth grade, the share of students reaching proficiency was low. A multi-year trend was not available, so it is not possible to see whether these results reflect a stable pattern or a change from prior years.
When compared with other schools in districts across Hennepin County, Loring’s overall proficiency index (which combines all tested subjects and grades) sits above the midpoint of the group. That means it is not near the top of the county, but it is also not at the bottom. For a parent reading this, the position suggests that while the school faces real academic challenges, it is not an outlier within the broader landscape of the county.
The school’s program offerings were not available in the data, so it is unclear what specific academic or enrichment options exist beyond the general curriculum. Information on staffing, class size, discipline, and attendance was also absent. Those are areas a parent would want to ask the school about directly.
Because Loring serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report.
The district brief highlights several developments that could affect families considering Loring. The school board voted to close three schools at the end of the 2022-23 school year as part of a response to declining enrollment and budget pressures. The district’s Comprehensive District Design, phased in starting in fall 2021, restructured school pathways and attendance boundaries, which means a family should verify which middle and high school Loring feeds into and whether the pathway has changed recently. The district also faced a projected budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year, driven by enrollment decline, the end of federal COVID-19 relief funds, and structural pressures. That financial picture can affect staffing, programs, and the stability of school assignments.
The housing market around the school shows home values and rents that are moderate relative to the national context, which may be a factor for families deciding where to live. The broader city has seen slight population decline in recent years, another piece of the larger picture that shapes the district.
In short, Loring Elementary is a small, diverse urban school serving a high-needs population, with state test results that sit around the middle of the county but show a particular soft spot in math by the upper elementary grades. A parent choosing this school would want to understand the feeder pattern under the district’s redesign, ask about enrichment offerings and support programs that are not visible in the data, and recognize that the district’s fiscal pressures are ongoing.
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