The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Math. The lowest is 42% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Blair-taylor Elementary
Blair-Taylor Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in the small, predominantly rural community of Blair, Wisconsin. The school is a regular public elementary school and part of the Blair-Taylor School District. The town itself has a strong Norwegian heritage, with annual lefse and lutefisk suppers at local churches, and its economy is tied to agriculture, dairy production, and sand mining. The school building is integrated into the town’s fabric rather than set apart on a large campus, and the public schools are among the city’s largest employers.
The student body is predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and an even smaller share of students identifying as two or more races. Just over half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a marker of the economic context families are working with. The school serves a modest enrollment spread across grades pre-K through five, with each grade level holding a similar-sized group of students. Data on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner classifications was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the depth of its special education and language support offerings.
State assessment results from the Wisconsin Forward exam show a mixed picture across grades and subjects. In third-grade math, a majority of students scored at the proficient or advanced level, a solid result. Fourth-grade math was a softer spot, with roughly two in five students meeting that bar, and fifth-grade math fell between those two, with about half reaching proficiency. In English language arts, third graders again showed a stronger outcome than fourth graders, while fifth graders posted the highest ELA proficiency of any tested grade group. Fourth-grade science and social studies results were close to the school’s overall pattern, with roughly two in five students proficient in science and a slightly larger share in social studies. When measured against other districts in Trempealeau County, Blair-Taylor Elementary’s overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of the county. That gives a parent a realistic benchmark: the school is not among the county’s highest-performing elementary schools in terms of test scores, but it is not at the bottom of the county either.
Because this is a school serving only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, which is expected for this grade band. No chronic absenteeism data was available in the provided information, so that is another topic a parent may wish to raise with the school office. The district brief did not surface any recent major changes such as referendums, building projects, or curriculum shifts, so the school appears to be operating without major recent disruptions.
The housing market in the area has seen appreciation. Home values in the Blair area have risen in recent years, and the area has drawn some Amish farming families in the surrounding countryside. The town itself has remained relatively stable in population, growing only slightly since a period of faster growth in the mid-20th century. For a family considering a move, the housing is more affordable than the state and national benchmarks, which is a practical consideration when weighing the overall academic profile.
This school fits a family looking for a small-town public elementary school in a community with a clear agricultural and cultural identity. The academic results are mixed: stronger in some grades and subjects, weaker in others, and below the midpoint of the county overall. The share of students from lower-income households is substantial, and the school’s offerings in special education and English language support are not clear from the data available. A parent who values a close-knit rural setting and is comfortable investigating those support areas further will have a realistic picture of what Blair-Taylor Elementary offers.
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