Academic Opportunities

All Day Preschool Preschool Music Lesson
Inver Grove Heights Schools offers preschool classes for 3- and 4-year-olds. In addition to the morning and afternoon class options for 4-year-olds, families can also enroll their child in all day preschool. Students receive both breakfast and lunch at school, and preschool students who live within district boundaries can take their elementary school's bus in the morning and afternoon.

Atheneum Gifted Magnet Program
ISD 199’s Atheneum Gifted Magnet Program is a school-within-a-school, located at Salem Hills Elementary. The program provides a full-time accelerated learning environment designed to meet the needs of high-achieving students in grades 2 - 5. Atheneum is a U.S.Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School and has been recognized by the Minnesota Department of Education for the outstanding progress of its students.

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)
All Inver Grove Heights Middle School students take Challenged-Based Learning, a student-driven trimester class where students focus on developing public speaking skills, collaborate with peers to solve open-ended questions, and analyze a variety of topics and issues. Students use their interests to look deeper into local and global issues and provide their voice to help solve them.

Students learn about 3D printingElementary STEAMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, & Media) Classes
Each ISD 199 elementary school offers hands-on STEAMM classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, art, math, and media and how students can combine skills from each discipline to creatively solve problems. Students begin STEAMM classes by reading a book and then break into groups for projects that allow them to invent and that challenge them to test and retest their ideas to find creative solutions. 

English Language Learners Classes
Our students speak more than 40 languages at home. Our highly skilled English Language Learner staff helps students become proficient in English to further expand their opportunities for the future.

Environmental Learning
Students research ecosystemsOur schools are committed to environmental learning. Simley High School biology students learn about ecosystems in the pond on school grounds. They learn how to properly take samples from the water and study the organisms that live there. Pine Bend Elementary School students regularly use their school forest for hands-on science lessons. They have also worked with Dakota County to study and reduce food waste in their cafeteria, and they have the opportunity to join extracurricular clubs like Green Team, which holds environment-focused events and helps properly recycle or dispose of waste at the school, or Garden Club, which teaches students how to tend and maintain the school's pollination, fruit, and vegetable gardens.

Gifted & Talented Services & Coordinator
Inver Grove Heights Schools strives to provide rigorous and engaging curriculum for every student, including those identified as gifted and talented. Our gifted and talented services focus on advancing the general curriculum by differentiating classroom pacing or content and offering specialized services like subject or grade acceleration and cluster grouping. The Gifted & Talented Services Coordinator for Inver Grove Heights Schools ensures that gifted curriculum is challenging and enriching, refines and continuously improves gifted identification, supports gifted students and families in advocating for their needs and connecting them with their peers, and provides systemic, research-based professional development to teachers. Click here to learn more on the Gifted Services webpage.

STEM Explorations robotics lessonMiddle School STEM Explorations
STEM Explorations provides rigorous, relevant STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) learning for middle school students. The engaging, hands-on class develops skills like problem solving, critical thinking, creative and innovative reasoning, and a love of learning. STEM Explorations provides a foundation for and proven path to college and career success in STEM-related fields, the heart of today's high-tech, high-skill global economy.

Spanish for Heritage Speakers
Simley High School students who speak Spanish at home can take the Spanish for Heritage Speakers courses to develop and challenge their Spanish speaking, writing, reading, listening, and culture development. Students develop Spanish academic language skills and learn more about their language and cultural heritage while enhancing their career opportunities.