Summary
Hilltop Elementary is a PK–5 neighborhood school in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, serving 626 students as part of Inver Grove Heights Schools. Its 2025–2026 school rank is 726th of 869 statewide — the 16th percentile, or 1 star — well below its district, which sits at the 43rd percentile. Percentile ranks have hovered mostly between the 10th and 20th for a decade, so this is a long-standing pattern rather than a one-year dip.
Academically, Hilltop trails both its district and the state in all three tested subjects: math 31.8% (district 35.2%, state 44.9%), reading 25.5% (district 37.8%, state 48.6%), and science 14.1% (district 17.2%, state 25.5%). Reading is the sharpest gap, and it starts early — 3rd grade reading is 15.3%, compared with 30.6% districtwide and 46.8% statewide, and 4th grade reading is 21.6%. By contrast, 5th grade reading (40.2%) is a relative bright spot. Science has swung widely, from 20.22% in 2022–2023 down to 4.76% in 2024–2025 and back to 14.1% in 2025–2026, so it is worth watching.
Comparisons with nearby schools are telling. Several schools with similar or higher poverty levels post better results: Newport Elementary (54.55% free/reduced lunch, 9.5 students per teacher) scores 53.2% in math and 43.2% in reading, while Lincoln Center Elementary (56.12% free/reduced lunch) and Kaposia Education Center Elementary (70.16%) also outperform Hilltop in math and reading. Hilltop's ratio is higher, at 15.2 students per teacher. Atheneum Elementary, in the same district, is a statewide outlier at 100% reading and 93.8% math, but it is small, serves grades 2–5, and has far lower poverty, so it is not a like-for-like comparison. Results also vary by group: special education students rank at the 50th percentile and English learners at the 45th, while low-income students rank in the bottom 16th percentile.
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