Metro Deaf School

Metro Deaf School is a PK–12 alternative school in Saint Paul, MN, serving 156 students as its own district. Its closest comparison schools are also alternative settings, ranging from 9 students at Juvenile Service Center to 166 at Fairview Program, with Bridge View Special Education at 115, Rivereast Program at 54, and Anna Westin House at 13.

The school has a low student-teacher ratio of 6 students per teacher in 2024-25, up from 4.7 in 2023-24 and 4.2 in 2022-23 — well above Fairview's 17:1, though Bridge View (4.9), Rivereast (5.6), and Juvenile Service Center (3.3) report lower ratios. Its free/reduced-lunch rate is high and stable at 64.1%, below Bridge View, Anna Westin House, and Rivereast but above Fairview. Graduation and dropout results diverge sharply: the 2024-25 graduation rate is 21.4%, far below the state's 84.9% and the Saint Paul Public Schools rate of 77.8%, yet the dropout rate is 0.0% in 2024-25, 2022-23, and 2018-19. Graduation has swung widely (10.0% in 2018-19, 72.7% in 2022-23).

Math and reading are the clearest academic gaps: in 2025-26, all-grade math proficiency is 8% versus the state's 44.9%, and reading is 17.5% versus 48.6% — a pattern that has persisted for years. Bridge View generally scores higher in both subjects, while Rivereast is slightly higher in math (9.4%) but much lower in reading (6.1%). Science is the relative bright spot at 25%, essentially at the state average of 25.5% and above Bridge View and Rivereast, but it has swung from 0% to 33.33% to 4.55% to 25% across reported years, and the End-of-Course science result (20%) trails the state's 35%. Because many grade-level results are suppressed to protect student privacy, those should be read as unknown rather than as zeros, and year-to-year swings in small cohorts should be interpreted cautiously.