Minneapolis–St. Paul’s Best School ZIP Codes, Ranked by NCES Data

According to NCES and EdFacts assessment data, the highest-scoring school ZIP code in the Twin Cities is 55410 in southwest Minneapolis, rated 76 out of 100 — more than double the 37-out-of-100 school score four miles away in ZIP 55415, near the University of Minnesota. School quality varies more within Minneapolis and St. Paul than almost any other component of the NeighborScore index.

How NeighborScore Rates a Twin Cities School ZIP Code

NeighborScore’s school score combines NCES Common Core of Data enrollment records with state-reported EdFacts math and reading proficiency rates for every school in a ZIP code, rolled up into a single 0-to-100 rating. That school score makes up 47% of a ZIP code’s overall NeighborScore rating; crime makes up the other 53%.

Because Minneapolis and St. Paul don’t share Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco’s ZIP-level incident crime data, both cities’ crime scores are set at the county level and don’t vary block to block — which means school quality is the main thing separating one Twin Cities ZIP code from another in NeighborScore’s data.

Proficiency rates in NeighborScore’s data come from each state’s EdFacts-reported assessments. Because participation, assessment design, and grade-level composition differ from school to school, side-by-side proficiency numbers are best read as a signal of relative academic performance within the same metro rather than a precise ranking to the decimal point.

Minneapolis’s Best (and Weakest) School ZIP Codes

1. 55410 (Southwest Minneapolis): school 76, overall 49, median price $632,000. Lake Harriet Lower Elementary posts 97.5% math and 92% reading proficiency; Armatage Elementary posts 75% math and 76% reading. See the 55410 profile.
2. 55419 (Southwest Minneapolis): school 73, overall 48, median price $535,000.
3. 55418 (Northeast Minneapolis): school 65, overall 44, median price $368,000.
4. 55417 (South Minneapolis): school 63, overall 43, median price $390,000.

At the other end, 55415 (Cedar-Riverside, near the University of Minnesota) scores just 37 on schools, with Stadium View reporting 25% math and 25% reading proficiency. 55408 (Uptown/Lyndale) is close behind at 38, where Green Central Elementary posts 32% math and 27% reading proficiency — a nearly 40-point spread from the metro’s top-scoring ZIP code, in a city where the crime component doesn’t vary at all.

St. Paul’s Best (and Weakest) School ZIP Codes

1. 55102 (Cathedral Hill / West Seventh): school 71, overall 47, median price $297,500. Nova Classical Academy’s upper school posts 87% math and 89% reading proficiency; its lower school posts 78% math and 73% reading. See the 55102 profile.
2. 55116 (Highland Park): school 71, overall 47, median price $500,000.
3. 55103 (North End / Como): school 63, overall 43, median price $260,000.
4. 55119 (East Side / Battle Creek): school 58, overall 41, median price $297,000.

St. Paul’s weakest school ZIP codes are 55101 (downtown/North End, school score 47, Creative Arts Secondary at 18% math and 35% reading) and 55107 (West Side, school score 51, Humboldt High at 10% math and 19% reading) — a smaller spread than Minneapolis, but still a 24-point gap between St. Paul’s best- and worst-scoring school ZIP codes.

Home prices don’t track school scores as tightly as one might expect. Minneapolis’s highest-scoring school ZIP, 55410, also carries the highest median price on this list at $632,000 — but St. Paul’s 55116 matches 55410’s neighbor 55419 on school score (71 vs. 73) at a nearly identical price, while 55102, tied for St. Paul’s top school score, is priced under $300,000. School score and price move together loosely in the Twin Cities metro, not in lockstep. That matters for budget-conscious families: a buyer prioritizing school quality over price has real options in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, not only in the single highest-priced ZIP code on this list.

Bottom Line

Minneapolis’s citywide average school score is 55 out of 100 and St. Paul’s is 62 — both trail Minnesota’s statewide average of 68. St. Paul’s average sits right at the national average of 62; Minneapolis trails the nation too. Within each city, though, the spread between individual ZIP codes is far wider than the city-to-state-to-national gap. A Twin Cities family comparing ZIP codes should treat the school score, not the crime score, as the primary differentiator. See more school-ranked ZIP codes or browse the full guide index on NeighborScore.