The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Math. The lowest is 53% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Yahara Elementary
Yahara Elementary is a regular public school in the De Forest Area School District serving only kindergarten through third grade. That narrow grade band defines much of what a parent should know upfront: this is an entry-point school where children spend four years before moving to an intermediate or upper elementary school in the district. There is no high school, no graduation rate, and the state testing data reflects only the grade levels actually tested.
The most recent third-grade results show that a little more than half of students scored proficient or above in math, and just over half did so in English language arts. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency level falls below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Dane County. Science and social studies testing data is from an earlier school year when the school may have included fourth graders; those results show a similar pattern, with about half of students reaching proficiency. Participation on both the math and reading tests was full, which means the results represent nearly every third grader.
The student body is predominantly white, and Hispanic students make up a share of roughly one in ten. Black, Asian, and multiracial students together account for a small portion of the enrollment. About one in six students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure that is noticeably below many schools in the area and suggests a relatively higher-income population overall. The data does not include information on special education identification or English learner status, so a parent who needs that detail would want to ask the school directly.
The school sits in the village of De Forest, a suburban community north of Madison that has seen steady population growth over recent decades. The village blends traditional residential neighborhoods with a substantial manufacturing and logistics base that includes a major business park and employers in plastics, packaging, distribution, and agricultural bioscience. That economic activity has contributed to housing costs that are considerably higher than what is typical across Wisconsin. Home values in the area exceed both the state and national medians, and rents follow a similar pattern. For a family moving to the area, the housing market is a competitive one.
The De Forest Area School District itself recently undertook a major capital construction program with a large total capital outlay, which signals that the district is investing in its facilities. That likely matters to families who plan to stay with the district as their child moves from Yahara into the later elementary and secondary levels.
Yahara Elementary fits a family seeking a primary school in a growing, higher-cost suburban community with a below-average share of low-income students and test results that sit in the middle range of what Dane County districts report. The school’s early-grade focus means parents will have a transition to plan for after third grade, but the district’s facilities investment and the broader community’s economic expansion point to a district that is actively building for the future. A parent may wish to ask directly about special education and English learner services, since those figures were not available in the public data examined here.
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