Cunningham Intermediate, Beloit WI

Original Research by School Decision on Cunningham Intermediate

Cunningham Intermediate is a closed school. It no longer serves students. A parent or resident looking up this school today will find a former Beloit School District building that was part of a larger grade configuration change that took place between 2022 and the 2024-2025 school year, when the district consolidated its intermediate model.

The school was a regular public intermediate school in Beloit, Wisconsin, serving students in middle school grades. Beloit is a post-industrial city along the Rock River at the Illinois border that has invested heavily in downtown and riverfront redevelopment since the 1990s, adding upscale condominiums, hotels, and a riverfront recreation complex after decades of economic distress. The city is home to several corporate headquarters, Beloit College, and a minor league baseball team. The School District of Beloit, now operating six elementary schools serving PK-5, two intermediate schools serving grades 6-8, and one high school, shifted away from the 4-8 intermediate model that Cunningham belonged to. Families in the district now follow a 6-8 intermediate path through either Aldrich Intermediate or Fran Fruzen Intermediate, and those looking for a direct match to Cunningham will not find one.

Because Cunningham is designated as closed, there is no current enrollment data, no student demographic breakdown, no information on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, no staffing, discipline, or attendance records to report. The school has no current course offerings or program descriptions. The most recent state testing data comes from the 2022-23 school year, before the closure, and it paints a straightforward picture of academic performance that was very low across all subjects and grade levels. In both math and English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above was small, consistently in the single digits or low double digits across grades 4 through 8. Only a small fraction of students met the state's proficiency benchmark in any tested grade. Science and social studies results were somewhat higher, but still indicated that most students were not reaching the proficient level. The test participation rate was high, above the typical threshold, meaning the results reflect nearly the full student body.

A parent looking at these numbers should understand that this was an academically struggling school in its final years. The district's reorganization and the school's closure suggest that the leadership made a structural change rather than continuing with the same configuration. For current families, the relevant question is what Aldrich Intermediate or Fran Fruzen Intermediate look like now, since those are the two schools that replaced the intermediate model Cunningham belonged to. The data for those schools is not provided here, so a direct comparison cannot be made.

The housing context of Beloit shows a market where typical home values are below the state average and notably below the national average, making it a more affordable place to live than many parts of Wisconsin. Rents are also below national benchmarks. The local economy includes a mix of manufacturing, corporate headquarters, and the college, with sustained redevelopment investment over the past three decades.

For a reader trying to understand this school, the core takeaway is that Cunningham Intermediate is a former school whose academic results reflected serious challenges and which no longer exists as an option. Any family researching schools in Beloit should look at the current intermediate schools, Aldrich and Fruzen, which are the district's present offerings for middle school students.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 45%

School 5% · District 24% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 49 pts below state median

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 16% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 44 pts below state median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 17% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 48 pts below state median

Grade 77%

School 7% · District 27% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 19% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 21% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 18% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 43 pts below state median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 25% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 28% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 24% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median

Science

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 22% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 19% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 34% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 43 pts below state median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 26 pts below state median

This schoolBeloit 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 4Lower-income9%Higher-income33%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income6%Higher-income15%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income2%Higher-income18%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income9%Higher-income20%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income36%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income3%Higher-income13%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income7%Higher-income8%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income4%Higher-income12%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income5%Higher-income13%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income7%Higher-income0%7 pp gap