Gaylord a Nelson Educational Center, Clear Lake WI

Original Research by School Decision on Gaylord a Nelson Educational Center

Gaylord A Nelson Educational Center serves students from the youngest pre-kindergarten years through sixth grade in Clear Lake, a small rural village in Polk County. The school is the sole elementary building for the Clear Lake School District and is classified as a regular public school. Its grade span means there is no high school graduation rate to report, and state testing data is available only for the grades that take the Wisconsin Forward assessment, which begins at third grade.

On state assessments, the school’s results show a notable pattern across grade levels. In mathematics, the share of students scoring proficient or above rises markedly from third grade through sixth grade, climbing from roughly a quarter of test takers to nearly three-quarters of sixth graders. English language arts follows a similar upward trajectory, starting at about a third of third graders and reaching three-fifths of sixth graders. Science and social studies are tested only in fourth grade, where about two-fifths of students met the proficiency bar in science and three-fifths in social studies. When combined across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quarter among the seven districts in Polk County. A parent looking at the grade-level results may see a school where students tend to show stronger performance as they move through the elementary years, but the composite standing relative to other county districts suggests room for growth in the earlier grades.

The student body is small, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The racial and ethnic composition is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races, and very few Black or American Indian students. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not provided, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports and populations.

Clear Lake itself is a compact village with a mix of residential streets, a downtown cluster along U.S. Highway 63, and an industrial park hosting several large manufacturers. The village describes itself as a growing rural community roughly an hour from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area, and recent highway improvements have made that commute easier. The village has a park with lakes, campgrounds, and hiking paths, and hosts an annual Heritage Days event. There is no public transit; daily life is car-dependent. Home values in the area are moderately priced relative to Wisconsin as a whole, and the local economy draws on manufacturing, small retail, and services, with the school district itself being a local employer.

No information was available on course offerings, staffing ratios, discipline rates, or chronic absenteeism for this school. Similarly, the district brief turned up little of lasting impact from recent changes, so those areas are not addressed here. For a parent weighing this school, the test results present a mixed picture: performance improves as children advance through the grades, but overall the school’s proficiency lags behind most other districts in Polk County, which may warrant a closer conversation with the school about its approach to early elementary instruction and how it supports students who are not yet meeting state benchmarks.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 29 pts below state median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 673%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 20 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 37%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 7 pts above state median

Science

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 42%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 61%

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolClear Lake 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-income21%Higher-income47%26 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income32%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income52%29 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income74%37 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income7%Higher-income42%35 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income44%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income71%41 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income55%Higher-income84%30 pp gap