The top reported proficiency rate is 75% in Social studies. The lowest is 49% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on North Crawford School District
The North Crawford School District serves a rural swath of Crawford County in southwestern Wisconsin, covering a wide stretch of the Kickapoo Valley and the small communities of Soldiers Grove, Gays Mills, Bell Center, Mount Sterling, and Steuben, among other unincorporated places. It is a single-building campus district, meaning its two schools, North Crawford Elementary and North Crawford High, sit on or near the same property in the unincorporated community of North Crawford, roughly midway between Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills. The district delivers all grades from prekindergarten through twelfth grade under one roof in practice, with the elementary and high school buildings adjacent to each other. This arrangement gives students and families a close-knit experience, as the vast majority of classmates stay together from kindergarten through graduation, and transitions between buildings are minimal.
Enrollment is quite small, with just over four hundred students in total across prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Class sizes per grade level hover in the low to mid-twenties for most elementary and middle school grades and rise slightly into the thirties in the high school, though the graduating senior class is moderately sized relative to the district's total enrollment. The student body is predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and a very small share of Black students. Nearly all students live in the district's rural townships, making the school the primary social and academic center for many families in this part of the county. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch was not available in the sources reviewed, and the same holds for the rates of students receiving special education services or identified as English learners.
On state assessments administered in the spring of the 2024-25 school year, the district's overall proficiency index, which averages proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grade levels, placed it among the lower end of the three districts in Crawford County when compared directly. Within the county's three districts, North Crawford sat in the lower portion for overall tested performance. In math, results varied noticeably by grade. Third graders, fourth graders, and fifth graders all posted proficiency rates that were solid, with fourth graders particularly strong. However, math proficiency dropped sharply in sixth grade and again in eighth grade, where rates were low. Seventh graders fell in the middle. In English language arts, the pattern was more consistent across the tested grades, with the majority of students in third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades scoring proficient or above, and sixth graders coming in below that mark. Science and social studies results, which are tested only in fourth and eighth grades, showed the majority of students reaching proficiency in both grades in both subjects. These state test results provide a snapshot, and a parent may want to talk to the school about the math dips in the middle grades to understand the context.
Chronic absenteeism is a documented concern in this district. The rate was the highest among the three Crawford County districts, notably above the other two. This is an area a parent may want to ask about directly with the school, as chronic absence can affect student learning and classroom dynamics.
The district has no publicly reported four-year graduation rate in the data available, so it is not possible to gauge high school completion from this source. This gap may reflect a reporting lag or the school's classification, and a parent considering the high school program would want to request graduation data from the district.
Per-pupil spending is above the levels seen in the other two county districts, which may indicate a higher investment in staffing, programs, or facilities relative to district size.
Community context matters here for a family deciding if this setting fits. The housing market in the area served by the district shows home values in the range typical for rural Wisconsin, with a mix of modest and mid-range prices depending on the specific zip code. The largest contributor to the district's weighted home value is the Soldiers Grove area, where values have been climbing at a notable rate. The valley's landscape, the Kickapoo River floodplain, and the small downtowns of Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills are the anchors of daily life. Families relocating to the area should expect limited commercial amenities and a longish drive to La Crosse or Prairie du Chien for shopping and medical services.
The search for recent district changes or strategic priorities from public sources returned little of lasting impact, so this profile does not describe any active initiatives, facility plans, or leadership turnover. A parent considering the district should ask current residents and the school office about any ongoing developments.
This is a very small, rural district. The academic picture shows some strong elementary and social studies results alongside real variability in middle-grades math. The high chronic absenteeism rate stands out. The setting offers a classic, consolidated one-campus rural school experience in the Kickapoo Valley, where the school and community are tightly woven together. It will fit a family looking for a small community school in a remote, scenic part of the state, and a parent should be prepared to inquire directly about the absence and math trends that the available data raises but does not fully answer.
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