Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 56303

Zip code 56303 in St. Cloud, Minnesota contains three middle schools serving grades 6–8 — North Junior High, St. Cloud Math & Science Middle, and Success Academy St. Cloud - Middle — enrolling 857 students combined, all with high free/reduced-lunch rates and proficiency below the 2025–26 state benchmarks of 44.9% Math, 48.6% Reading, and 25.5% Science.

Enrollment is heavily skewed: North Junior High is by far the largest school with 720 students, about 84% of the zip's middle-school population, while St. Cloud Math & Science has roughly 11% and Success Academy about 5%. The relative academic standout is St. Cloud Math & Science Middle, which posts the zip's highest all-grade proficiency in Math (27.7%, versus 20.7% at North and 9.7% at Success), Reading (30.5%, versus 27.4% and 9.7%), and Science (12.5%, versus 7.9%; Success's figure is suppressed). It also has the best 2025–26 rank percentile in the zip at 28 and the lowest student-teacher ratio at 12.7, and showed the strongest year-over-year gains, with Math up about 12.2 percentage points and Science rising from 0% to 12.5%. Still, it trails its own district and sits well below the state in every subject. North Junior High, part of the St. Cloud Public School District, has the most complete three-year rank history, but it is stable and low — percentiles of 19, 17, and 19 — and its 2025–26 proficiency is below its district in Math, Reading, and Science.

Success Academy St. Cloud - Middle is the most challenged school here: 46 students, a rank of 544 out of 546, 0 percentile, and 0 stars, with all-grade Math and Reading both at 9.7% and 7th-grade Math and Reading both at 0%. Several of its values, including 2025–26 Science and all 8th-grade subjects, are suppressed by the state and are unknown rather than zero. District context helps: St. Cloud Math & Science's percentile of 28 is above its district's 20, Success Academy's 0 is below its district's 10, and North's 19 is close to its district's 21. Across the zip, Science is the weakest subject, poverty is universal, and every school trails Minnesota averages.