Original Research by School Decision on Cedarburg High
Cedarburg High sits in a community that blends a preserved historic downtown with the rhythms of suburban life north of Milwaukee. The school itself is a comprehensive public high school serving grades nine through twelve on its own campus, separate from the downtown civic and cultural core where City Hall, the Cedarburg Cultural Center, and the Performing Arts Center are clustered. The town’s character is driven by a mix of residential subdivisions, a tourist-oriented commercial district along Washington Avenue, and year-round festivals that draw visitors from outside the area. That setting gives the school a notably stable and advantaged economic context: a very small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and the student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of Hispanic, Asian, Black, and multiracial students. A parent considering the school will see a peer environment shaped by this demographic reality.
The district that operates Cedarburg High recently made two moves that matter for families. Voters approved a pair of referendum questions in late 2024—one operational, one capital—that will fund district-wide facility improvements and allow spending above state revenue limits. The tax impact on local homeowners is a real and lasting consideration for anyone moving into the district. At the same time, the district reported a decrease in its mill rate due to growth in property values, which partially offsets that impact. The district also shifted its K-12 literacy curriculum starting in the 2023-2024 school year, moving from balanced literacy to a structured literacy approach grounded in the science of reading. That change affects how students learn to read across the elementary grades, but the high school sits at the end of that pipeline.
State testing data for Cedarburg High was not available in the information we reviewed, so there is no direct measure of academic proficiency to report here. The graduation rate was also absent from the data we had. These are significant gaps for any family trying to gauge academic outcomes. The school is a regular public high school—not a charter, not a magnet—and serves a conventional grade band, so these are metrics that typically are reported. A parent will want to ask the school directly about its state test results and graduation rate to fill in what is missing here.
The school’s enrollment is sizable for a single high school, and the grade-level distribution is relatively even, suggesting a stable population through the high school years. Course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, and attendance patterns were not detailed in what we had, so those are additional questions a family might pursue. The school does not receive Title I funding, consistent with the low poverty context.
The community’s economic footing is solid. Housing values in the Cedarburg zip code are well above national benchmarks, and rents are correspondingly high. The town’s historical trajectory—from a German-immigrant mill town to a post-war suburb to a tourist destination—has produced a place where property values have grown steadily. The local unemployment rate is low, and median household income is above the national median. For a family moving into the area, the affordability gap between renting and owning is sizable, with monthly mortgage costs outstripping rent by a meaningful margin.
What a parent can take away is this: Cedarburg High operates in a district that has recently invested heavily in its facilities and operations, serving a student body that comes from a relatively affluent and predominantly white community. The school’s location in a historic and amenity-rich town is a draw for families who want a suburban setting with a downtown that has character. But without state test results or a graduation rate in hand, a family will need to seek out those figures directly from the school to form a full picture of academic performance. The data we have shows a school with strong community support, a low-poverty context, and a recent district-wide curriculum shift in literacy—none of which substitutes for actual outcome measures.
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