Harambee Elementary School, Maplewood MN

Original Research by School Decision on Harambee Elementary School

Harambee Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in Maplewood, a mature inner-ring suburb of Saint Paul. The school is part of the Roseville Public School District, which voters backed with a bond referendum in late 2023 for facility improvements, including safety upgrades and learning space modernization, and the district has also launched a strategic plan update centered on equity, student wellbeing, and academic achievement. These district-level priorities shape the environment for Harambee families, though it is early to see their effect on classroom experience.

Maplewood itself grew rapidly after World War Two, shaped by the 3M corporate headquarters campus, Maplewood Mall, and St. John's Hospital. It remains a car-oriented community with no walkable downtown core; major highways crisscross the city and commercial life concentrates along corridors. The housing stock is largely post-war suburban. The area’s largest employers are 3M, the school district, and the hospital. This is the context a Harambee family would navigate: a suburban setting with limited traditional street life, decent regional connectivity by car, and a mix of residential neighborhoods.

Harambee’s student body is diverse. The largest demographic groups are Black students and Asian students, followed by white students and Hispanic students; a smaller share identify as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high-poverty school population. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and serves only elementary grades, so there is no graduation rate to report and no high school–level pathways like AP or dual-credit offerings.

On state assessments, which are administered in grades three through six for math and reading, and in grade five for science, proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades are low. In math, the share of students meeting state standards is under one-fifth across each tested grade. In reading, the share is also low, generally in the mid-twenties for most grades. In science, the rate is similarly low. Compared to other school districts in Ramsey County, Harambee’s overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of the comparison set. These are the central academic facts a parent would want to weigh. The school’s scores are clearly well below district and state averages, though the data available is from a single year (2024–25) with no trend history because the assessment format changed, making year-over-year comparisons uncertain. A parent may want to ask the school what supports are in place for students who are not yet meeting benchmarks.

The school does not offer programs like language immersion or specialized magnet themes, based on the available data; no course access or staffing details were provided. That absence does not mean such programs do not exist, but no evidence was found to describe them. The school environment data for discipline, attendance, and staffing was also not available. For a family considering Harambee, the known picture is of a high-poverty, diverse elementary school in a suburban district that has recently committed to facility upgrades and strategic equity work, but whose students are currently performing well below state proficiency targets. The fit would likely depend on how a family weighs these factors and what additional supports they find when they visit or speak with the school.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 49% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 44% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 32% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 38% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 42% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 40% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 49% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 53% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Science

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 24% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

This schoolROSEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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 4Lower-income14%Higher-income27%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income40%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income7%Higher-income21%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income10%2 pp gap