The top reported proficiency rate is 15% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on S St. Paul Community Lrng. Cntr.
S St. Paul Community Lrng. Cntr. is an alternative school within the South St. Paul Public School District, serving grades seven through twelve. It is a small, non-charter public school, and its enrollment is heavily concentrated in the upper high school grades, with most students in twelfth grade and a much smaller group in eleventh grade; no students were reported in the lower grades. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse, with a large Hispanic or Latino population, a sizable white population, a smaller group of students who identify as two or more races, and a modest Black student population; no Asian, American Indian, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students were reported.
State testing data for this school is limited and should be read carefully. For the school year that was analyzed, proficiency results in eighth-grade English language arts and science were available, while seventh-grade results were suppressed, likely due to too few test takers. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Dakota County. Eighth-grade proficiency rates in both English language arts and science were low, and the participation rate for those tests was modest, meaning that a sizable portion of the enrolled students did not take the assessments. A parent may want to discuss assessment participation and academic progress directly with the school to get a fuller picture than the reported numbers alone provide. Multi-year academic trend data was available only for math, showing a single year’s point with no trend line to examine.
Because this is a school that serves grades seven through twelve, a four-year graduation rate would normally be a key metric, but it was not available in the data for this entity. No information was reported on discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance. No specific program offerings, such as AP, career and technical education, or dual-credit pathways, were listed in the available data. The school’s type as an alternative school often means it serves students who have found a traditional large-school environment to be a poor fit, and that context matters for interpreting both the academic results and the missing graduation rate.
The school is located in South St. Paul, a predominantly residential community with a strong blue-collar history and a compact footprint along the Mississippi River. The city was historically defined by the Saint Paul Union Stockyards and meatpacking industry, which have since closed and been redeveloped into mixed-use and riverfront areas. South St. Paul remains a diverse community with a significant Hispanic or Latino population and a strong Eastern and Southern European immigrant heritage. Major local employers include Twin City Bagels, Waterous Company, American Bottling, the school district itself, and Stockyards Meat Packing Co. The city has many parks, the Doug Woog Ice Arena, a public library, and the Mississippi River Greenway trail. Metro Transit bus routes serve the area, and the city is accessible via major highways. The growth trajectory centers on redevelopment of former industrial sites and infill in established neighborhoods.
At the district level, a search for recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary adjustments, program launches, or budget developments turned up no information that clearly met the reporting bar, so none are included here. A reader should not assume that nothing is happening, only that publicly available and lasting changes were not surfaced in this review.
This school fits a family looking for a smaller, alternative high school setting within a district that serves a diverse and historically industrial community. The academic performance data shows clear soft spots, and a parent would want to investigate how the school supports students toward graduation and what pathways it offers after that. The limited data on testing participation and the absence of a reported graduation rate are significant gaps worth raising directly with the school.
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