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Alumni: what's one memory from Sanford Middle that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
728
Middle
DISTRICT 623 · STATE 495
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 272124001028
Sanford Middle
3524 42ND AVE S, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55406 · (612) 668-4900 · Hennepin County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL728 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 83% of Minnesota public middle schools
- A-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Minnesota public middle schools
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
46 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.3:1 · STATE 17.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
34%
250 students
DISTRICT 63% · STATE 48%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 256 | 35% |
| Grade 7 | 234 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 238 | 33% |
Student demographics
60%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · STATE 60% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
MCA 2024-25 . % Meets or Exceeds StandardsEnglish Language Arts
56.7%
MN avg 49.7%
Math
47.8%
MN avg 45.3%
What this means: On the MCA, Minnesota's statewide test, about 57 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 48 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Minnesota schools, those numbers are about 50 and 45.
Source: MCA. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
48.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
46.6%
based on MN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 49% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 47% typical for Minnesota schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Minnesota's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Sanford Middle
Sanford Middle's state test result (48.6% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanford Middle this school | 728 | 34.3% | 48.6% |
| Hopkins North Middle School MINNETONKA | 866 | 31.1% | 40.5% |
| BIG LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL BIG LAKE | 632 | 35.0% | 46.3% |
| Highview Middle School NEW BRIGHTON | 823 | 39.1% | 46.0% |
| Dakota Meadows Middle School NORTH MANKATO | 852 | 30.2% | 47.0% |
| ST. ANTHONY MIDDLE SAINT ANTHONY | 439 | 31.0% | 49.4% |
Matched among Minnesota middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Sanford Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Minnesota | In Hennepin County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.6% | #65 of 245 | #15 of 46 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 47.8% | #87 of 245 | #15 of 46 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 56.7% | #63 of 245 | #15 of 46 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 728 | #92 of 306 | #20 of 53 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.9:1 | #80 of 210 | #20 of 43 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 60.2% | #74 of 216 | #26 of 43 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 34.3% | #133 of 252 | #32 of 47 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -25.0% | #17 of 129 | #5 of 24 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
728
-205 (-22%) vs 2020
+11% since 1990-91, when it was 656
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
was 38.9:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 728 | 45.7 | 15.9:1 | 34% (250) |
| 2023-24 | 705 | 39.7 | 17.7:1 | 35% (248) |
| 2022-23 | 738 | 26.8 | 27.5:1 | 38% (278) |
| 2020-21 | 933 | 24 | 38.9:1 | 54% (500) |
| 2017-18 | 971 | 61.9 | 15.7:1 | 61% (593) |
| 2015-16 | 816 | 52 | 15.7:1 | 63% (513) |
| 2010-11 | 600 | 39 | 15.4:1 | 65% (388) |
| 2000-01 | 559 | 41 | 13.6:1 | 79% (439) |
| 1990-91 | 656 | 42 | 15.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sanford Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 25% (971 to 728); teachers down 26% (61.9 to 45.7).
About Sanford Middle
Sanford Middle is a mid-sized middle-grades school in MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, under Minneapolis Public School District. Enrollment totals 728 students across grades 6 through 8. Across middle schools in Minnesota, the average enrollment is about 495.
Minneapolis Public School District enrolls 29,928 students in 86 schools, including Sanford Middle.
The student body at Sanford Middle is 60% White. Other reported shares: 11% Black, 10% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 8% Native American. A diversity index of 60% means there is a 60% chance two randomly chosen students at Sanford Middle are from different groups.
The student-to-teacher ratio is 15.9:1. The school has 45.7 full-time-equivalent teachers. The school's 15.9:1 compares with an average of 17.5:1 for middle schools in Minnesota. Federal data show 34% of students (250) are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The 43% average for public schools in Hennepin County is 9 points higher.
Among Minnesota public middle schools, Sanford Middle outscored 83%, which works out to an A- on the allk12 Grade.
Sanford Middle is 2.0 points above its predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results (48.6% versus 46.6%), which places it in neither the top nor the bottom 10% in Minnesota.
In the surrounding county, Hennepin County, the median household earns about $97,653 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 54%, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Hennepin County has 496 public schools with about 177,509 students, including Sanford Middle.
Howe Elementary is about 0.3 miles away, making it the nearest public school. Within five miles of Sanford Middle, there are at least 8 other public schools. On average proficiency, Sanford Middle is 3rd of 5 nearby schools with test data.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as City: Large, meaning it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
By 2024-25, enrollment had dropped to 728, from 933 in 2020-21. Its ratio of students to teachers was 38.9:1 in 2020-21, and 15.9:1 in 2024-25.
This page is set up for the Sanford Middle community to discuss open houses, carpools, and field trips. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Hennepin County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,269,496
Census ACS
Median income
$97,653
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
54%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
496
177,509 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Minneapolis Public School District
- Washburn HighHigh · 1,521 students
- South HighHigh · 1,257 students
- Southwest HighHigh · 1,195 students
- Roosevelt HighHigh · 1,148 students
- Andersen MiddleMiddle · 1,052 students
- Justice Page MiddleMiddle · 1,020 students
Other schools in MINNEAPOLIS
- Washburn HighHigh · 1,521 students
- South HighHigh · 1,257 students
- Southwest HighHigh · 1,195 students
- Roosevelt HighHigh · 1,148 students
- Andersen MiddleMiddle · 1,052 students
- Justice Page MiddleMiddle · 1,020 students
Other Sanford Middle schools
3 other US public schools in 4 states are named Sanford Middle. Sanford Middle is the 3rd largest of the 4.
- SANFORD MIDDLE SCHOOLSANFORD, FL · 1,385 students
- Sanford Middle SchoolSanford, ME · 920 students
- Sanford Middle SchoolOpelika, AL · 533 students
Nearby schools
- Howe Elementary0.3 mi · 230
- Dowling Elementary0.6 mi · 399
- Friendship Academy of Arts - Interm0.8 mi · 167
- Hiawatha Elementary0.9 mi · 201
- Longfellow Alternative High0.9 mi · 50
- Bdote Learning Center1.0 mi · 65
Frequently asked questions
About Sanford MiddleHow large is Sanford Middle?
Sanford Middle enrolls approximately 728 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Sanford Middle serve?
Sanford Middle serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Sanford Middle?
Approximately 15.9:1 students per teacher at Sanford Middle.
How diverse is Sanford Middle?
Sanford Middle reports a student body of 60% White, 10% Hispanic, 11% Black, 1% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Is Sanford Middle public or private?
Sanford Middle is a public K-12 school, overseen by Minneapolis Public School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.