Original Research by School Decision on Anna Westin House
Anna Westin House is an alternative school in Saint Paul, part of the Saint Paul Public Schools district. It serves grades four through twelve, but its enrollment is very small—only about a dozen students across the upper grades. That small size defines the school. With just six students in grades nine through twelve and a handful more in the middle grades, the school operates at a scale where each student gets a high degree of individual attention.
The student body is predominantly White, with a small number of Black and Hispanic students and a few who identify as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a context where many families face economic pressures. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported, so it is unclear whether those populations are served here.
Because the enrollment is so small, state testing results are suppressed for privacy reasons in every subject and grade for which testing was attempted. The state reported only that a single student was tested in each of the tested grades and subjects—math in seventh and eighth grade, reading in eighth grade, and science in eighth grade—but no proficiency rates or scores are available. For a school of this size, missing test data is not unusual; it is a direct consequence of state privacy rules. A parent should not read the absence of scores as a weak result, but rather as a structural feature of a very small alternative setting. No graduation rate is reported either, which likely reflects the school's nontraditional pathways and the small number of seniors.
The school itself sits at 2230 Como Avenue West in Saint Paul, a residential neighborhood not far from the Como Park area. Saint Paul is the state capital and the eastern anchor of the Twin Cities. It has a dense, walkable downtown on the Mississippi River, a highly ranked park system, and a mix of government employment, cultural institutions, and professional sports venues. The city's population is notably diverse, with sizable White, Asian (including a large Hmong community), Black, and Hispanic populations. Housing values in the zip code are in the mid-range for the metro area, and rents have been rising, consistent with regional trends.
Anna Westin House is part of Saint Paul Public Schools, a large urban district that has recently opened new magnet options and renamed some schools. The district opened an E-STEM middle school in Woodbury focused on environmental science and technology, converted Jackson Elementary into the East African Elementary Magnet, and renamed Ramsey Middle School to Hidden River Middle School. These changes reflect a district that is actively shaping its offerings, but Anna Westin House appears to be a specialized alternative program rather than a mainstream magnet or neighborhood school.
Given the sparse data, a parent considering Anna Westin House should reach out to the school directly to understand its academic approach, student support services, and postsecondary pathway options. The school's mission as an alternative school suggests it serves students who have not thrived in traditional settings, but the available evidence provides no detail on curriculum, counseling, or career and college preparation. For families with children who need a very small, structured alternative environment, this school may offer a fit that larger buildings cannot. For those looking for test scores, graduation rates, or program breadth, the absence of those measures means there is little to evaluate from the outside.
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