Highwood Hills Elementary School is a diverse neighborhood school located on St. Paul's eastside with a focus on learning, participating and growing. The vision is to improve the academic achievement of all our students.

Responsive Classroom is the basis for social skills curriculum and cooperative learning which has created a safe, warm, welcoming environment. Students are required to wear uniforms (red or white top with navy blue bottoms). Our daily average attendance is at 98%.

Specialty classes include social skills, technology (computer lab), physical education, and science. The curriculum incorporates Reader's and Writer's Workshop, Harcourt-Brace Balanced Literacy Program and Everyday Math which are programs that are used to teach reading, writing, and math.

Progress indicators are the Diagnostic Reading Assessment which is administered three times a year and Progress Monitoring using running records which are given every two weeks to children that are below grade level in reading. Progress in reading is monitored regularly to ensure reading growth for all students. Every Day Math skills are progress monitored regularly as well, measuring the skills that have been secured after each unit test.

Special Features:

• Full-day kindergarten
• School Readiness for four-year-olds that meet the qualifications
• Recognized as "beating the odds" due to the significant progress made on the MCAII
• An extensive literacy center with thousands of leveled readers
• A faculty that has been extensively trained through the University of MN in the area of reading utiliizing the Project of Academic Excellence and Reading First grants
• Language academy classes at each grade level for K-6 students that need language proficiency skills
• Partnership with Hamline, River Falls, and the University of MN to receive student teachers that are knowledgable about current practices
• Special education programs including the Learning Center
• Early Childhood Special Education classes
• Early Reading First Program for teaching literacy skills to four year olds
• A state-of-the-art computer lab; Mobile laptop computers
• Gifted and talented program (SEM) which includes participation in History Day, Young Authors Conference, and Destination Imagination competition
• SALT program offered to Somali students twice a week to learn about literacy in the Somali language
• 6th grade environmental camp yearly
• After school program that meets twice a week
• In collaboration with the Minnesota Literacy Council an agreement has been arranged for the Council to provide a literacy person for individual and small group tutoring in the area of literacy