Summary:
ZIP code 55349 in Howard Lake, Minnesota, has one listed elementary school, Journeys Alternative Program, which serves grades K–8 and is part of the Meeker and Wright Special Education district. This is not a traditional neighborhood elementary: it is an alternative program in a special education district with just 9 students enrolled. Because there is only one school in the ZIP code, parents cannot compare it with another local public elementary; any comparison would need to look at nearby ZIP codes or similar specialized programs.
The available data show a small, high-support setting. The 2024–2025 free/reduced-lunch rate is 66.67%, roughly 6 of 9 students, and the 2024–2025 student/teacher ratio is 2.3 students per teacher, far below a typical elementary ratio. That low ratio suggests an intensive support model, and if enrollment aligns with the ratio year, 9 students ÷ 2.3 implies about 3.9 teacher FTEs. Academic performance for the school is unknown: all school-level MCA Math and Reading results are suppressed, so the state does not provide proficiency figures for this school. Suppressed scores should be treated as unavailable, not as zero or as proof of low performance.
District-level results are available but do not describe this school alone. The district’s All Grades Math proficiency is 13.3% versus 44.9% statewide, and Reading is 0% versus 48.6% statewide, while district grade 3 and grade 4 results are also suppressed. Those gaps are large, but they come from a special education district, so comparing them directly with statewide general-education averages is not like-for-like. Parents should keep in mind that with only 9 students, one student equals about 11.1 percentage points, making percentages volatile. The clearest takeaway is that this is a very small, specialized K–8 alternative program with high need indicators and a low student/teacher ratio; its academic quality cannot be judged from the published data.
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