Walkable areas, good schools?

[Family of five]

Yes, Mpls and St. Paul do have very walkable areas. I refer to my neighborhood as Mayberry, because it feels like a small town in many ways, including the corner grocery store. I don't believe that there are many, or any, walkable areas with good public schools K-12, though.

The high schools in the western suburbs are enormous. Rather than each town having their own high school (there are exceptions, like Edina and Richfield (I do not recommend Richfield schools) for example), the school districts often include parts of more than one suburb to create the population. Unlike say, the Boston area, where almost every town has it's own school system.

If you cross reference the US News rankings, Niche, and Great Schools, you will be able to come up with a list of good schools. There are many good schools in the suburbs, it's just a matter of where you want to live. West, North, South, East, you can find good districts in any direction.

[StPaulGal]

Honestly, I would take the school rankings with a major grain of salt. When it comes down to it, the only thing the rankings really measure with any accuracy is how many rich white kids attend a given school. A pretty significant chunk of our non-white residents are economically disadvantaged recent immigrants/refugees or their US-born children. The unfortunate fact is that students in such situations are less likely to have families that are able to support their academic success the way more well-off families can.

The fact that you are even asking the question about which schools are good means that your kids will probably be just fine at pretty much any school in the area. Parental engagement and household income are MUCH higher predictors of an individual student's success than which of our pretty much universally-acceptable schools they land at. The only schools I would go out of my way to avoid you wouldn't have to worry about as they are located in areas that are otherwise undesirable anyway. Anywhere charming and safe is going to have schools that are plenty good.

[uptown_urbanist]

We love Uptown for a walkable neighborhood that is great for city-loving families. Visit Bryant Square Park on a nice summer weekend and you'll find families from all over the world wading in the pool, on the playground, playing baseball or soccer, having picnics, or listening to frequent concerts. Look up "CARAG" neighborhood. More expensive, and less diverse but very walkable and right by Lake Calhoun (and very family-friendly, too) is the ECCO neighborhood of Minneapolis; there may be some houses for under 400K. CARAG is just enough farther away that it's cheaper, yet still walkable to the lake and to all the businesses of both Uptown and Lyn-Lake, not to mention two great neighborhood parks! (Painter and Bryant Square)

There are certainly other neighborhoods out there, too, but this area is perfect for anyone looking for walkable. Your budget will the limiting factor; it might be tough to find something in your price range (although if going up to 400K then you're fine here). If you cross Lyndale Ave and go to the Lyndale neighborhood you'll find even more diversity, still be very walkable, a great community organization, and still walkable to Bryant Square Park, but also have the very nice Painter Park. (Lyndale is also home to our mayor)

We've been very happy with the quality of schools in this area. Jefferson has some problems, but most of Uptown is zoned for either Kenwood or Lyndale; Lyndale doesn't have the test scores, but I hear good things from families who send their kids there. And there are a lot of really good magnets that serve this part of the city. Don't let the anti-city school rhetoric scare you off. If walkability is on your wish list, you're going to hate living in most local suburbs.

If you prefer a suburb, then a suburb like Hopkins is walkable and family-friendly, offers some diversity, and has quality schools.

[jamnkats]

with a kid going into highschool i would check hopkins as i believe their latin/asian population might be better than others (or might not) but SouthWest high is hugely diverse (if my daughter's friends are an example of the student body). SW MSP is very walkable - we don't even have a car and live off diamond lake. i even do costco in SLP on my bike and bike to work in SLP and college in St Paul. For school you're looking at SW if you're in Kenny/Armitage (sp?) etc and Washburn (less stellar than SW high) if you're east of Hwy 35 (so Hale, Field, etc.). You're pushing the envelope at 300K in those neighborhoods though and definitely in any SW district neighborhood. BUT SW high has open enrollment and you might be in a better posisition to transfer in when your kid is of age.

we bought in May (international move - actually purchased the home remotely) and have our girls at SW high and live in Diamond Lake area. we're a little south of the "action" but like I said, from St Paul to SLP have not yet needed a car.

[nueces_78]

Thank you so much, you've given us such great information to start with!

I appreciate the help so much.

[cathedralhill1]

Originally Posted by StPaulGal

Honestly, I would take the school rankings with a major grain of salt. When it comes down to it, the only thing the rankings really measure with any accuracy is how many rich white kids attend a given school. A pretty significant chunk of our non-white residents are economically disadvantaged recent immigrants/refugees or their US-born children. The unfortunate fact is that students in such situations are less likely to have families that are able to support their academic success the way more well-off families can.

The fact that you are even asking the question about which schools are good means that your kids will probably be just fine at pretty much any school in the area. Parental engagement and household income are MUCH higher predictors of an individual student's success than which of our pretty much universally-acceptable schools they land at. The only schools I would go out of my way to avoid you wouldn't have to worry about as they are located in areas that are otherwise undesirable anyway. Anywhere charming and safe is going to have schools that are plenty good.

No kidding, and with the release of 2016 test scores today we have some data to back this up. White kids in St. Paul aren't doing half as bad as the general public seems to believe. Furthermore, for the western half of St Paul the differences in achievement are pretty hard to suss out. For the four schools Twin Cities Academy, Ramsey, Murray, and Highland (in this order, for all grades) % proficient:

Reading: 78, 75, 78, 75
Math: 65, 66, 61, 59

Hard to average grade 6-7-8 just for white kids for the whole state, but it looks like it would be right around 65 for both. So St. Paul is average for math, above for reading.

There is a massive and seemingly intractable achievement gap which of course we all wish wasn't there. A charter school like TCA seems to be doing better in addressing this issue.

[cathedralhill1]

I should have stated above that I was referring to the middle schools in this part of St. Paul.