Summary:
There are two middle schools in the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan district: Friendly Hills Middle and Heritage E-Stem Magnet School. Both serve grades 5–8 and have similar enrollment (785 and 761 students). The district itself is ranked 134 of 458, at the 71st percentile, with 4 stars — a rating both schools share because it is measured at the district level. That strong district rating, however, masks a wide gap between its two middle schools.
Friendly Hills Middle is the clear higher performer. It holds 4 stars in every reported year and improved its rank from 153rd to 121st, reaching the 78th percentile in 2025–2026. It outperforms Heritage in every all-grade subject and every grade-level math and reading comparison. Its strongest result is 8th grade reading at 60.8% proficient, 10.8 points above the state (50.0%) and 2.5 points above the district (58.3%). Its 8th grade science, 22.8%, is 6.1 points above the state (16.7%).
Heritage E-Stem Magnet School holds 3 stars in each reported year, improving from 254th to 215th before slipping to 227th (58th percentile). Math is its biggest weakness: all-grade math is 29.9%, 15.0 points below both the district and state, and 5th grade math trails the state by 17.5 points. Reading is a relative strength for both schools, with all-grade reading at or above the state. Heritage's 8th grade results are also solid — math 40.7%, reading 55.9%, and science 19.6%, all near or above state levels. Heritage has smaller classes (student-teacher ratio 14.6 versus 17.4) and a higher free/reduced lunch rate (52.04% versus 41.15%), yet trails academically — a reminder that context and other school-level factors likely play a role.
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