Summary:
There is one middle school in the Higher Ground Academy district in Minnesota: HGA Junior High, a grades 6–7 school in Saint Paul serving 196 students. Because it is the only middle school in this area, the comparisons below are to the district and the state rather than to other nearby middle schools. The district ranks 314 of 458, with a listed percentile of 31 and a 2-star rating.
HGA Junior High's academic profile is mixed. Reading was the relative bright spot in 2025–2026: all-grades reading proficiency was 40.8%, which is 4.1 percentage points above the district's 36.7% but 7.8 points below the state's 48.6%. Math was weaker at 25.7% for all grades, 11.0 points below the district and 19.2 points below the state. Within the school, 6th graders clearly outperformed 7th graders in both subjects — 6th-grade reading was 47.5% versus 35.4% in 7th grade, and 6th-grade math was 32.9% versus 19.8%. At 19.8%, 7th-grade math is the lowest score in the breakdown and sits 20.5 points below the state's 40.3%. 6th-grade reading, at 47.5%, is the strongest result.
Year over year, math improved from 20.35% in 2024–2025 to 25.7% in 2025–2026, a 5.35-point gain, though it remains below district and state. Reading declined from 46.24% to 40.8%, a 5.44-point drop; the reading test label changed from MCA-III to MCA-IV, so cross-year reading comparisons should be treated with caution. The school's percentile rose from 35 in 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 to 39 in 2025–2026, holding a 2-star rating and edging above the district's listed percentile of 31. Context matters: 93.88% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch in 2024–2025, and the reported student-teacher ratio was 73.1.
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