Dowling Elementary

Dowling Elementary is an elementary-level community of mid-tier scale in MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, part of Minneapolis Public School District, hosting 399 students in grades K through 5.

Within Minneapolis Public School District, which oversees 86 schools and 29,928 students, Dowling Elementary is one campus in the system.

In terms of who attends, Dowling Elementary reports that White students make up the majority at 57%; the rest comes out to 20% Black, 9% multiracial, 9% Hispanic, 4% Native American. The wider county runs roughly 66% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Dowling Elementary reports 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.0:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.7:1, putting Dowling Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. About 39% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

After controlling for student poverty, Dowling Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 43.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 54.5%.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Hennepin County shows the typical household earns roughly $97,653 per year, roughly 54% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Hennepin County runs 496 public schools (combined enrollment of about 177,509 students), of which Dowling Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Howe Elementary, around 0.4 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Dowling Elementary comes 5th of 8 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 52.0%.

Dowling Elementary operates from an inner-city location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 20%: 499 students in 2018 compared to 399 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share ticked down from 36% to 20%. Class-load math has loosened: from 14.4:1 in 2018 to 16.0:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.