The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Career and College Academy
Career and College Academy is a public charter school in Elkhorn, part of the Elkhorn Area School District, serving grades six through twelve. It is a regular public school operating with charter status. The student body is small, with an enrollment concentrated in the upper grades, so the school functions primarily as a high school with a much smaller middle school component.
The school describes itself through its name as a pathway focused on postsecondary preparation. The student population is predominantly white, with a substantial share of students from Hispanic backgrounds and smaller representations of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Nearly half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a notable proportion of families with lower household incomes.
State assessment data for the school is very limited, and a parent should treat this as a significant gap in the available picture. For the seventh grade, no results were reported at all for math or English language arts; the state suppressed the data. For the eighth grade, which had only a handful of students tested, the reported proficiency rate was zero percent in math, English language arts, and science. The participation rate was low, with roughly half or fewer of the eligible eighth graders taking the tests. It is not possible from this data to draw a reliable picture of academic performance for the school as a whole. The small testing cohort and low participation mean that for any given subject and grade, the results reflect only a tiny number of students. The school’s overall proficiency index, which combines all tested subjects and grades, places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Walworth County. Again, the thinness of the data is the main story here. A parent would want to ask the school directly for a fuller account of how student learning is assessed and what the school’s own internal measures show.
The school does not have a reported four-year graduation rate, so that core measure of high school completion is not available for this narrative.
Elkhorn itself is the county seat of Walworth County, a small city with a traditional downtown centered on a park around the county government center. It is known as the “Christmas Card Town” for its holiday decorations and hosts the Walworth County Fair, the largest county fair in Wisconsin, at the fairgrounds embedded in the city. Manufacturing, educational services, and retail trade are the largest employment sectors. The city’s population has seen a slight decline since the 2020 census, and its owner-occupied housing rate reflects a stable, modestly growing market rather than a rapidly expanding one. The median home value in the area is around the national average, and the town’s character is that of a slow-growing county seat with a mix of residential and civic life.
In November 2024, voters in the Elkhorn Area School District approved a referendum authorizing a substantial sum for district facility improvements and capital projects, which will affect the physical learning environment across the district, including this school.
For a family considering Career and College Academy, the core questions are about what happens inside the school day and how the school measures progress. The available state testing data is too sparse to use as a gauge, and the absence of a reported graduation rate removes another common benchmark. The school’s small size and charter status suggest it may offer a distinctive approach or environment, but the publicly reported academic metrics do not provide a clear read on its effectiveness. A family would need to get that picture directly from the school through visits, conversations with staff and current families, and review of any school-produced reports on student outcomes and postsecondary placement.
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