Summary:
ZIP code 55812 in Duluth, Minnesota contains three schools — Congdon Elementary, serving grades PK–5, and two middle-grade settings, Ordean East Middle School and Alternative Learning Center SWS Ordean East, both serving grades 6–8. There is no high school in the ZIP. All three belong to the Duluth Public School District, and together they enroll 1,558 students, with Ordean East alone accounting for about two-thirds of that total.
Congdon stands out in math and science: 65.5% of students are proficient in math, with district and state both at 44.9%, and 46.7% in science, versus 33.6% district and 25.5% state. Its 4th-grade math score of 79.2% is the highest single grade-level result in the ZIP. Ordean East is the reading leader, at 64.8% proficient compared with 54.7% district and 48.6% state, including 71.7% in 6th-grade reading. Its math, at 45.1%, essentially matches district and state. Congdon had the stronger reading in 2024–2025 (73.86% to Ordean's 64.33%) but dropped to 64.0% in 2025–2026, leaving Ordean slightly ahead at 64.8%.
Congdon has the lowest free/reduced lunch rate (20.68%) and lowest student-teacher ratio (16.6); Ordean East is at 22.37% and 18.3. Both were 5-star rated in 2023–2024 and 4 stars in the two years since, with Congdon slipping from the 95th to the 86th percentile and Ordean East from the 90th to the 88th — still well above the district's 63rd percentile. The small Alternative Learning Center, with 47 students, reports no test or rank data, but shows the highest need indicators in the ZIP at 61.7% free/reduced lunch and a 23.7 student-teacher ratio.
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