The top reported proficiency rate is 90% in Social studies. The lowest is 66% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Amherst Elementary
Amherst Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade on a unified K-12 campus in the Tomorrow River School District. The school is a regular public school within the small village of Amherst, which sits along the Tomorrow River and the Amherst Millpond in Portage County. The village is compact, with a traditional Main Street commercial corridor, a riverside park downtown, and civic anchors such as the Lettie W. Jensen Library and the Lettie Jensen Community Center. The Canadian National Railway main line runs through the village on an elevated grade. Schools and civic life are integrated here, with the elementary, middle, and high school all on the same campus.
The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small number of Hispanic students and a very small number of Black and Asian students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Because this school serves only early elementary grades, it does not have a graduation rate. The school population is fairly evenly distributed across the grades it serves.
On the Wisconsin Forward assessments, Amherst Elementary shows a pattern of solid performance that strengthens in science and social studies. In third grade, math and English language arts proficiency rates were both broadly near the middle of the range, with social studies not tested at that level. In fourth grade, math proficiency was moderately strong, English language arts proficiency was somewhat lower, but science proficiency reached a high level and social studies proficiency was at the top of what was measured. Reading across the results, the school’s strongest showing came in fourth-grade social studies, where the vast majority of students met the proficiency bar, and fourth-grade science also performed strongly.
When compared to other districts in Portage County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile. This is a meaningful comparison because the county includes several districts, and Amherst Elementary is performing above most of them. A parent looking at these results would see a school that does well in the early grades, particularly in the content-area subjects that begin in fourth grade.
The Tomorrow River School District recently passed a referendum that funded a new STEAM addition, the Wolding STEAM Center, along with office and secure entry additions and remodeling of middle school, food science, and library spaces. This is a lasting facilities and programmatic expansion that has shaped the district’s academic offerings and campus environment. For Amherst Elementary families, that investment signals a district commitment to modernized learning spaces, though the direct effect on early elementary classrooms is not detailed in the available data.
The housing market in the area around the school shows home values that are above the national median, with recent year-over-year appreciation that has outpaced both the state and national benchmarks. The estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is moderately higher than the estimated rent, which tilts the affordability calculation toward renting for some households. The national median household income provides a reference point for thinking about what a family in this community can afford in housing.
The village has grown modestly in population over the past several years, with projected growth rates slowing slightly in the near term. The median age in the village is around the national average, and a modest portion of residents are under 18, which is typical for a community with a family-oriented school.
No data was available on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or discipline metrics at this school. A parent who wants to know about student support structures or classroom-level dynamics would need to ask the school directly. No program offerings were reported, so the academic pathways beyond the core curriculum are not documented here. Because the school serves only early grades, the absence of high school metrics such as graduation rate or advanced coursework is a function of the grade band and does not reflect on the school itself.
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