Highlands Elementary, Appleton WI

Original Research by School Decision on Highlands Elementary

Highlands Elementary is a regular public school in the Appleton Area School District serving students from preschool through sixth grade. It is located in a residential section of Appleton, a mid-sized city in Outagamie County that grew out of the paper-manufacturing era and now maintains a diverse economy with healthcare, education, financial services, and manufacturing at its core. Appleton’s downtown along College Avenue functions as a regional hub for entertainment and culture, with venues like the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and the Trout Museum of Art nearby. Lawrence University sits adjacent to downtown, and the city supports a network of parks and trails.

The school’s enrollment is in the mid-range for an elementary of its grade band, serving just under five hundred students. The student body is racially and ethnically varied. More than two-fifths of students are white, nearly three in ten are Asian, and the remainder is made up of students who are Hispanic, Black, multiracial, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a higher-needs context relative to many of its peers.

State testing results from the most recent year show proficiency rates in both math and English language arts that are lower than district and state averages. In math, proficiency across grades three through five was below a third of tested students at each grade level. In English language arts, the pattern was similar, with the share of students meeting proficiency declining from roughly a third in third grade to just over a fifth in fifth grade. Science results for fourth graders also fell below a third proficient, while social studies results were slightly stronger, approaching two-fifths proficient. When compared with other schools in Outagamie County, Highlands Elementary’s combined proficiency index places it in the bottom quarter of the comparison set.

Parents should know that the school serves a population with a high rate of economic need, and the academic results reflect a school that is working against headwinds. The data does not include information on special education or English learner populations, which may be relevant for families trying to gauge the school’s capacity for targeted support. There is no discipline, attendance, or staffing data available in this profile, so it is not possible to assess chronic absenteeism or the student-to-teacher experience directly. Families considering Highlands may want to ask the school directly about its approach to academic intervention and the specific supports available for students who are behind grade level.

The neighborhood around the school sits within Appleton’s housing market, where home values and rents are close to the statewide benchmark and slightly below the national average. The area has seen modest appreciation in both home prices and rents over the past year, reflecting typical Midwestern market trends. The school does not have a charter or magnet designation and is a standard neighborhood elementary within the Appleton Area district. No recent district-level changes such as referendums or boundary adjustments were found in publicly available search results, though that does not rule out the possibility of smaller adjustments a parent would want to verify with the district office.

For a family weighing this school, the core question is fit. Highlands is a diverse, economically mixed elementary in a stable midsize city with a solid downtown and cultural amenities. The academic results are below the county median, which gives a clear picture of the instructional challenge. A parent who values a close-to-home neighborhood school and is prepared to be active in monitoring academic progress may find Highlands workable. A parent seeking higher average test performance would want to compare it with other elementary options in the Appleton Area system or consider schools in neighboring districts where proficiency rates are higher. The data here does not support a judgment on the school’s programming, extracurricular offerings, or building climate, so those remain open questions a visitor or phone call would need to answer.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 54% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 53% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 54% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 50% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 50% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 53% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Science

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 49% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 60% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

This schoolAppleton Area School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income24%Higher-income48%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income18%Higher-income32%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income17%Higher-income32%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income46%Higher-income57%11 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income24%Higher-income52%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income36%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income44%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income50%2 pp gap