E-stem Middle School, Woodbury MN

Original Research by School Decision on E-stem Middle School

E-STEM Middle School is a public magnet school serving grades six through eight, operated by Saint Paul Public Schools but located in Woodbury in Washington County. It is a regular school, not a charter, and it opened recently as a new specialized option for middle-grade students with an environmental STEM focus. The school sits on a campus in a fast-growing Twin Cities suburb known for its residential subdivisions, major medical and tech employers, and extensive network of paved recreational trails. Woodbury is a car-dependent community without a traditional downtown, anchored by a civic complex that includes an indoor park, library, and YMCA. The housing market reflects the area’s affluence: home values and rents are above state and national benchmarks, making this a more expensive place to live.

The student body is small but diverse. More than four in ten students identify as Asian, roughly two in ten as Black, and smaller shares as Hispanic, white, or multiracial. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is substantial, well above many surrounding school districts in Washington County. No data on the number of students with disabilities or English learners was reported for this school year, so a reader should ask the school directly about those supports.

Academically, the state testing results from the most recent school year show that the school’s proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades place it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Washington County. In math, proficiency was low across all three grade levels; in English language arts, roughly three in ten students met the state standard; in eighth-grade science, the share was very low. Only one year of data is available for this school, so there is no trend to compare. Parents considering E-STEM should look into how the school’s curriculum and instruction are developing, given that the school is new and these scores represent an early baseline. The school’s thematic focus on environmental science and technology may appeal to families seeking a hands-on, project-based middle school, but the testing data suggests that academic support and acceleration will be important topics to raise with the administration.

Because this is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing was available in the source information. The district, Saint Paul Public Schools, has been making changes to its magnet offerings; in addition to E-STEM, it converted an elementary school into an East African–focused magnet and renamed another middle school. These moves signal a district actively shaping its choice options, but they also mean some schools are very new, with limited track records.

For a family deciding whether E-STEM is a good fit, the central tension is between its promising identity as an environmental STEM magnet and the academic picture from its first year of state testing. The school serves a high-poverty, racially diverse student body in a relatively wealthy suburban city, which reflects the wider Saint Paul district’s demographics more than Woodbury’s typical profile. The Woodbury area offers many parks, trails, and community facilities, though daily life requires a car. Parents who value a specialized middle school program and are willing to engage closely with the school’s academic development may find E-STEM worth a serious look. Others may want to compare it with more established middle schools in the region and ask the school directly about how it plans to raise achievement across all subjects.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 614%

School 14% · District 22% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 22% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 20% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 36% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 31% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 33% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 10% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

This schoolSaint Paul Public Schools, 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 6Lower-income33%Higher-income31%2 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income33%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income28%Higher-income29%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income13%Higher-income17%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income14%Higher-income10%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income23%7 pp gap