Summary:
ZIP code 55042, which covers Lake Elmo, Minnesota, is home to two elementary schools enrolling a combined 785 students: Lake Elmo Elementary, a PK–5 school with 697 students in Stillwater Area Public Schools, and Pankalo Education Center, a small K–8 school with 88 students in Northeast Metro 916. Lake Elmo Elementary accounts for about 88.8% of local enrollment and Pankalo about 11.2%. Statewide all-grade benchmarks for 2025–2026 are 44.9% in Math, 48.6% in Reading, and 25.5% in Science.
Lake Elmo Elementary is the larger, higher-performing option. It holds 3 stars and sits at 285 of 869 schools (67th percentile) in 2025–2026, while its district ranks 47 of 458 statewide (90th percentile, 4 stars). All-grade proficiency is 59.8% in Math (14.9 points above state) and 55.7% in Reading (7.1 points above state), but Science is 24.1%, 1.4 points below state and 10.3 points below district. Grade 3 is its strongest tested grade (70.4% Math, 56.0% Reading), while Grade 5 is its weakest (42.2% Math, 50.5% Reading, 24.1% Science). Year over year, Math was flat, Reading slipped slightly, and Science declined 3.53 points.
Pankalo Education Center looks very different: 88 students, a 3.6 student-teacher ratio versus 14.4 at Lake Elmo, and a 64.77% free/reduced lunch rate versus 22.96%. Its all-grade proficiency is 2.3% in Math, 14.3% in Reading, and 8.3% in Science, and its latest rank is 726 of 872 (17th percentile, 1 star) — up from the 5th and 2nd percentiles in prior years. Many grade-level scores are suppressed, so its grade-by-grade picture is incomplete by design. Its low ratio and high needs suggest a specialized, high-support setting, so direct academic comparisons with Lake Elmo should be made cautiously.
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