Park Spanish Immersion Elementary, Saint Louis Park MN

Original Research by School Decision on Park Spanish Immersion Elementary

Park Spanish Immersion Elementary is a regular public school in the St. Louis Park Public School District, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. Its entire identity is bound up in its core program: students learn academic content in both Spanish and English. For a family seeking bilingual education within a traditional public school setting, this is the primary draw. There is no charter or magnet designation attached to the school.

The school is in a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis, a city characterized by a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and light-industrial areas. The locale is not a single downtown but a series of commercial nodes, including the West End district. The city has a notable Jewish community and a large Russian-speaking population. Families live in a place with extensive trail systems, many parks, and ongoing transit-oriented development anchored by the upcoming Southwest light rail line. Housing values and rents in the area sit above national medians, and the local housing market has seen modest appreciation.

On state assessments, Park Spanish Immersion posted a pattern that invites a closer look. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through five were strong, with the school performing at a level that places it in the top quartile among elementary schools across Hennepin County when considering overall proficiency. In English language arts, results were more varied, with one grade level showing a notably lower proficiency rate than the others. A parent may want to discuss these grade-level results with the school to understand instructional consistency. For science, which is tested only in fifth grade, the proficiency rate was lower, though that subject sits outside the core language-immersion model, and the assessment itself underwent changes that year which may affect comparability.

The school's enrollment is modestly sized for an elementary. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population and a smaller share of students identifying as two or more races. A relatively small portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting the school serves a broadly higher-income attendance zone than many of its peers. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the reporting, which is a notable gap given that a language-immersion program raises natural questions about how English learners are served. A family with a child who qualifies for special education or English language services should ask the school directly about how those supports are delivered within the immersion model.

Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate. That is simply a function of the grade band and not a reflection on the school's eventual outcomes. Likewise, data on chronic absenteeism and broader school environment metrics like discipline were not available. The school does not have a Title I designation.

Academically, the school's strength is in mathematics, where it performs at a high level relative to other schools in the county. The language arts profile is solid in some grades and weaker in others, which is the piece a prospective parent should explore. For a family committed to Spanish immersion, the school is one of a limited number of such public options in the metro area, and the academic results are generally strong enough that the immersion program does not appear to come at a clear cost to core skills. For a family indifferent to immersion, the school's program is the defining feature and would likely shape the whole experience.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 386%

School 86% · District 62% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 60% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 56% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 48% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 52% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 64% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Science

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 32% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

This schoolST. LOUIS PARK PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST., 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-income25%Higher-income74%49 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income88%47 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income75%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income78%37 pp gap