St. Paul School of Northern Lights

The St. Paul School of Northern Lights district in Saint Paul, Minnesota contains just two schools: St. Paul School of Northern Lights, an elementary school serving grades K–6, and St. Paul Northern Lights Secondary, a middle school serving grades 7–8. Both share the same address at 768 Hamline Ave S. Together they enroll 227 students, and the district carries a rating of 357 of 458, the 22nd percentile, or 1 star.

The elementary school holds nearly all of the enrollment — 212 students, about 93% of the district — while the middle school has only 15. That gap shapes everything: the elementary's percentages move slowly, but at the middle school a single student is worth roughly 6.7 percentage points, so its results swing easily. The middle school does have a much lower student/teacher ratio, 8.1 versus 13.3 at the elementary. In 2025–2026, middle-school math was 29.6%, above the elementary's 23.6%, yet both sit well below Minnesota's 44.9%. Reading was 42.7% at the elementary and 40.7% at the middle, both under the state's 48.6%. Elementary science was 18.4% against the state's 25.5%; the middle school's science figure is suppressed (—), which means it is unknown, not a weakness.

Math is the clearest concern — every reported grade-level math result fell below the state average, with the widest gaps in 3rd grade (24.2% vs. 57.9%), 5th grade (15.8% vs. 41.9%), and 6th grade (16.7% vs. 39.5%). Reading is comparatively stronger: 5th grade reading was 60.5%, above the state's 54.5%, and 4th and 7th grade reading were close to state averages, though 6th grade reading lagged at 28.1% vs. 53.4%. Reading slipped from the prior year at both schools, and elementary science dropped from 30% to 18.4%. The elementary's rank peaked at 2 stars and the 40th percentile in 2024–2025 before returning to 1 star and the 26th percentile in 2025–2026.