The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Science. The lowest is 13% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Penfield Montessori Academy
Penfield Montessori Academy was a public charter school in Milwaukee that served students from early elementary through grade six using the Montessori method. The school is now closed. It operated as a tuition-free, inclusive Montessori program authorized by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and it permanently shut its doors at the end of the 2022–23 school year. Publicly reported sources attribute the closure to funding challenges, specifically that the state provided less per-student funding than traditional public schools receive and that inadequate reimbursement for special education services created unsustainable gaps. After the closure, some former staff and families launched a new school called West Side Montessori Academy, which operates as a satellite of another charter school, Adeline Montessori, but the original Penfield building was sold.
Because the school served only pre-kindergarten and elementary grades through grade six, it had no high school graduation rate. State testing results from the Forward assessment are available for the 2022–23 school year, the final year of operation, but the data comes from very small groups of students so results vary considerably by grade. In third grade, no students reached the proficient level in either math or English language arts. In fourth grade, roughly one in ten students was proficient in math and no students were proficient in ELA, though about half of fourth graders reached proficiency in science and about a quarter in social studies. In fifth grade, a larger share of students reached proficiency, roughly a quarter in math and two-fifths in ELA. Sixth-grade results were suppressed by the state due to very low student counts. Any family considering this school now will not be able to enroll there, but may look into West Side Montessori Academy as a possible continuation of the same community.
Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s largest city, a historically industrial port on Lake Michigan with a diverse economy anchored by several Fortune-ranked corporate headquarters in financial services, staffing, industrial automation, and energy. The city is known for its lakefront, three rivers, and large music festivals, but it also remains one of the most racially segregated cities in the country, a legacy of redlining. The city’s population has declined over time, and there are significant economic disparities across neighborhoods. Housing in the ZIP code where the school was located falls below state and national benchmarks for home values, and rents are notably lower than national medians.
Penfield Montessori Academy’s charter district, Penfield Montessori Academy Inc, is now inactive. The district brief confirms that the closure was permanent and that the school ceased operations as of mid-2023 and began dissolution procedures including the sale of its building. The data on enrollment, student demographics, and free- or reduced-price meal eligibility from that final year were not available in the records we reviewed. The school was designated as a regular public charter school, not a magnet or alternative program, and it operated as its own district for charter purposes.
Given the closure, the key takeaway for a parent or resident is that Penfield Montessori Academy no longer exists as an option. The community that was built around it has partially reconstituted as West Side Montessori Academy, which any interested family would need to research independently for current enrollment, location, and program details. The original school’s academic results from its final year showed a range of proficiency rates across subjects and grades, with some grades showing no students at proficient levels and others showing modest shares, but the small class sizes make broad generalizations unreliable. The school’s value as an inclusive, tuition-free Montessori option in Milwaukee was real while it lasted, but the funding model that supported it proved unsustainable.
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