The top reported proficiency rate is 20% in English language arts. The lowest is 13% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hodgen Elem.
Hodgen Elementary sits within the St. Louis city school system, serving children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school. The building is located on California Avenue in the city, a neighborhood school in one of Missouri’s most densely populated urban districts. The school enrolls a student body that is modest in size for its grade span. Pre-kindergarten fills a notable share of seats, so the school acts as an early-entry point for many of its youngest families.
The student composition is heavily concentrated in one demographic group, with a very large majority of students identifying as Black. Smaller shares of White, Hispanic, and Asian students are also present, along with a handful of multiracial students. Every single student at Hodgen qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a high-need context where economic disadvantage touches the entire population. Data on special education and English learner enrollment was not reported.
Hodgen Elementary participates in Missouri’s MAP assessments, which test students in math, English language arts, and science at specified grade levels. The results available for the most recent testing year show academic performance that is well below common benchmarks. In math, the share of students reaching proficiency was very low in third grade and remained low in fourth and fifth grades. In English language arts, the scores for third and fourth graders were suppressed, which can happen when the tested group is small or when reporting thresholds are not met; no proficiency figure for those grades can be stated. The one ELA score that was reported, for fifth grade, showed roughly one student in five meeting the bar. Fifth-grade science followed a similar pattern, with about one in five reaching proficiency. The multi-year trend for ELA across all tested grades was flat, though that trend is based on a single year, so no trajectory can be drawn from it.
The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades placed it below the midpoint among schools in St. Louis city districts, meaning that its combined performance ranks in the lower half of that local group. A parent examining these results may want to discuss with the school how it supports foundational literacy and math skills, given the consistent pattern of low attainment. The suppression of younger students’ ELA scores also leaves a gap that a family would need to investigate directly.
Because the school serves only elementary and middle grades, there is no graduation rate to consider. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available, so an important piece of the engagement picture is missing. St. Louis city, the district that operates Hodgen, did not have any parent-relevant changes or major initiatives publicly reported in the recent period reviewed, so there is no district-level shift to factor in.
The city of St. Louis itself anchors the school’s community context. It is an independent city with a diversified economy that draws on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and aviation sectors, and it hosts a concentration of Fortune-company headquarters. Major employers include the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital within the Washington University Medical Center. Research universities such as Washington University, Saint Louis University, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis also shape the labor market and the civic life. Cultural anchors like the Gateway Arch, Forest Park, the Saint Louis Zoo, and the Missouri Botanical Garden are nearby. The city’s political boundaries have been fixed since it separated from the county, which has limited its geographic expansion. The housing market in the area around the school shows home values generally above the Missouri state average, while rents have been rising at a faster pace than the national norm, a dynamic that families considering the neighborhood will want to evaluate alongside the area’s broader economic character.
Hodgen Elementary is a neighborhood school serving a high-poverty population in an urban district. The academic numbers are low across the board, and the absence of certain reporting points leaves some open questions. For a family whose priority is proximity, early childhood entry, and a school deeply rooted in its local attendance zone, this is the option that fits that frame. For a family seeking a higher-proficiency academic environment, the data points elsewhere.
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