Carver Elementary, Maplewood MN - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Carver Elementary

Carver Elementary is a regular public school in Maplewood serving prekindergarten through fifth grade, part of the North St. Paul-Maplewood Oakdale school district. Maplewood is a mature inner-ring suburb of Saint Paul that grew rapidly after World War II, shaped by the 3M corporate headquarters campus, Maplewood Mall, and St. John’s Hospital. The city has an unusual L-shape and is car-oriented, crisscrossed by multiple highways with no traditional walkable downtown. Its top employment sectors are education, health care, manufacturing, retail, and social services. Housing values in the area sit near the national benchmark, and monthly rents run lower than a typical mortgage payment on a local home, making renting a more accessible option than buying for many households.

The school serves a large student body for an elementary campus. The student population is racially and ethnically diverse, with no single group forming a majority. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that many families face economic challenges. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the profile, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those programs and how they are staffed.

State assessment results are available from the most recent testing year for math, reading, and science. Overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places the school above the midpoint among districts in Ramsey County. That is a meaningful positive signal in context. However, the results vary by grade and subject in ways worth noting. In math, third-grade students showed a stronger proficiency rate than fourth and fifth graders. In reading, the pattern flipped: fifth-grade students performed at the highest level among the tested grades, while third and fourth grades trailed notably. Fifth-grade science results were lower. A parent considering Carver may want to discuss with the school how these grade-level patterns are being addressed in the classroom, particularly the drop in math proficiency between third and fourth grade and the uneven reading results across grades.

This is the first year of available test data for the school under the current assessment framework, so there is no trend yet to show whether scores are improving or declining. The district itself did not have any recent significant changes publicly reported that would reshape the school’s operating context.

Carver Elementary fits a family looking for a large, diverse elementary school in a suburban setting near Saint Paul, in a district that serves multiple communities across separated campuses. The academic picture has real strengths in some grades and subjects and softer spots in others. The school’s overall proficiency relative to other Ramsey County districts is a point in its favor. For a family whose top priority is consistent test performance across every grade and subject, a closer conversation with the school about its approach to the weaker areas would be wise. For a family that values a racially and economically diverse student body, a large school with broad program access, and a location in a well-established inner-ring suburb, Carver is a serious option worth exploring. The absence of certain data points, such as chronic absenteeism and special education population counts, means some of the usual benchmarks for comparing schools are not available here, so visiting the school and speaking with staff and current parents would fill important gaps.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 45% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 38% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 33% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 33% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 48% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 21% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolNorth St. Paul-Maplewood Oakdale, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income49%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income19%Higher-income37%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income71%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income68%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income39%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income16%Higher-income41%24 pp gap