Original Research by School Decision on Burlington High School
Burlington High School serves roughly nine hundred students in grades nine through twelve and is the sole comprehensive high school in the Burlington Area School District. The school sits in a small city about midway between Milwaukee and Chicago, a place that blends a walkable historic downtown with outlying commercial corridors and two major business parks. The student body is predominantly White, with a notable Hispanic representation and small shares of students who are Asian, Black, multiracial, or Native American. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school within a moderate range of economic diversity.
What is most striking about Burlington High School is how little state-reported academic data is available. No state assessment results were provided in the records for this school, which means proficiency rates in English, math, science, and other tested subjects cannot be described here. The graduation rate, chronic absenteeism rate, and any trend data are also absent. For a parent trying to gauge academic performance, this is a significant gap. It is not clear whether the missing data reflects a reporting lag, a shift in state testing, or something else, but a parent will want to follow up directly with the school or district for current results, course offerings, and postsecondary outcomes. The lack of this information makes it difficult to compare Burlington High School to its neighbors in Racine County, even though the school sits within a county with more than a dozen districts.
The school environment and access details, such as discipline rates, staffing ratios, attendance, and course access, were also not present in the data. Similarly, no program offerings were listed, so there is no information about Advanced Placement, dual-credit, career and technical education, or other specialized pathways. Burlington High School is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it does not appear to have Title I status. What can be said is that the school is part of a district that serves the city of Burlington with seven schools, including an elementary Montessori program and a middle school, plus a local campus of Gateway Technical College.
The community around the school is worth noting. Burlington’s historic downtown is described by the city as a walkable destination for residents and visitors, with a Riverwalk along the Fox River, a community theater company, and a newly constructed bypass that has reduced through-traffic. The city is actively growing, with its manufacturing and office park expanding and recognition as a small town attracting young professionals and families. Housing in Burlington’s zip code is moderately above the national median in value, and while affordability is tighter than the national average, the area continues to draw new residents. Ten major highways pass through the region, and the Canadian National Railway runs through town.
The district itself did not have any recent parent-relevant changes publicly reported, so there is no news about boundary shifts, closures, or new initiatives to factor in.
What Burlington High School offers, from what the data supports, is a traditional high school setting in a community that is stable and growing, with a student body that is economically mixed and predominantly White. The missing academic and program data means that a family evaluating this school will need to seek out current information directly from the school to understand the academic climate, graduation outcomes, and range of opportunities available. Without that, the picture is incomplete.
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