The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Social studies. The lowest is 60% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Saint Croix Central Elementary
Saint Croix Central Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade in the village of Roberts, a small community on the outer edge of the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area in St. Croix County. The village is primarily residential with a small-town atmosphere, situated along Interstate 94, and markets itself as a “good neighbor community” that welcomes development. The population has been growing slowly and steadily, and the village is experiencing enough enrollment pressure that the district recently passed a facility referendum to fund classroom additions at this elementary building.
The school is a regular public elementary school with no charter or magnet status. Publicly reported information about its Title I status was not available from the data provided. The student body is predominantly white, with modest shares of Hispanic and Asian students, and smaller numbers of students who are Black or of two or more races. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a common measure of economic need in public schools.
State test results, which are available for grades three and four, show that a majority of students are meeting proficiency benchmarks. In third-grade math and English language arts, roughly three in five students scored proficient or above. Fourth-grade results were stronger, with about two in three students proficient in math and in English language arts. In fourth-grade science, proficiency was in a similar range. Social studies, which is also tested in fourth grade, saw the highest performance, with the large majority of students meeting the proficiency standard. The school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits slightly below the midpoint among districts in St. Croix County, a county with generally strong academic outcomes. Families should note that this is a single-year snapshot, and that state tests are only one measure of a school’s work.
The school environment is shaped by the village’s character. Roberts has a low-density, auto-oriented layout, and schools and civic buildings are modest and distributed rather than concentrated in a dense downtown. St. Croix Central Elementary is located within Roberts, while the district’s middle and high schools are in the neighboring community of Hammond, a short drive away. No walkability scores or specific transit services were found in search results, and the built environment is highway-oriented, so families should expect to drive for most trips.
A significant development is the district’s recent shift to a structured literacy curriculum, beginning in the 2024–2025 school year, in response to Wisconsin’s statewide early literacy legislation. This move from balanced literacy to evidence-based, structured literacy instruction affects how all early-grade students are taught to read and represents a meaningful pedagogical change for the elementary school. Additionally, the district passed a major facility referendum in November 2024 that includes secure entrance renovations at all school buildings, HVAC improvements, roof replacements, and the classroom additions at this elementary school to address enrollment growth. This follows an earlier referendum in 2020 that funded a new middle school, which opened for the 2022–2023 school year. These investments signal a district that is actively modernizing its facilities and responding to growth.
No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, or course access was reported for this school, and specific special education and English learner enrollment figures were also missing from the available information. For an elementary school serving pre-K through fourth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, as that metric applies only to high schools.
This is a school where you can expect a rural-suburban setting, a largely homogeneous student population, and a district that has been putting resources into building improvements and instructional reforms. Academic performance is solid but not at the top of the county, and the student-teacher or staff-to-student dynamics are not documented here. A parent weighing this school should factor in the commute to the middle and high school campus in Hammond, the district's recent shifts in reading instruction, and the ongoing construction projects that will affect the elementary building. For a family that values a small-town environment with proximity to the Twin Cities metro and a district that is investing in its infrastructure, Saint Croix Central Elementary fits that profile.
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