The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in Social studies. The lowest is 50% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Ellsworth Elementary
Ellsworth Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is one of the regular public schools within the Ellsworth Community School District. It operates as a regular elementary school, not a charter or magnet school. Enrollment is sizable for the grade band served, and the student body overwhelmingly identifies as white, with a small Hispanic population and very small shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school above the midpoint among Pierce County elementary schools in economic need, a point a family may wish to consider for its peer context.
State testing results from the Forward assessment show a school that performs near the lower end of the county’s elementary schools according to the proficiency index, which averages proficiency across all tested subjects and grades. The school ranks in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Pierce County. Digging into the grade-level details reveals a varied picture. In math, third and fourth graders had proficiency rates that were on the softer side, while fifth graders posted a noticeably stronger result. In English language arts, performance declined across grade levels: third graders had the highest proficiency, fourth graders were lower, and fifth graders were markedly lower. Science proficiency for fourth graders was above the midpoint of the range, and social studies proficiency for the same grade was the strongest subject area at the school. Reading state test scores as a set, a parent may want to investigate how the school supports students as they move through the intermediate grades, particularly in literacy.
The school reported no chronic absenteeism data and no data on special education or English learner populations, so it is not possible to compare those aspects here. The school’s participation rates on state tests were very high, indicating that nearly all enrolled students took the assessments.
Ellsworth itself is a small village and the Pierce County seat, perched on a steep hill with a downtown centered around the historic courthouse. It is a car-dependent community where most residents drive alone to work, and the average commute reflects the area’s slow integration into the Twin Cities metro region. The Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery anchors the local economy and gives the village its informal title as the cheese curd capital of Wisconsin. Manufacturing, retail, and construction are the leading industries. The village is at the junction of several state highways and surrounded by farmland, forests, and bluffs. A public library serves as a community hub.
The Ellsworth Community School District has recently pursued two referendums. In 2022, residents approved a nonrecurring operational referendum that added recurring funding directly supporting district programs and operations, with implications for local property taxes. In 2024, the district sought a bond referendum for facility upgrades at the middle and high schools, including infrastructure repairs, new collaborative spaces, science lab upgrades, expanded career and technical education areas, and athletic facility improvements. These efforts point to a district actively investing in its physical plant and program capacity.
For a family considering Ellsworth Elementary, the school offers a conventional elementary experience in a community with a small-town feel and growing ties to a metropolitan area. The academic profile, particularly in English language arts for upper elementary grades, is uneven and falls below the county median on a composite basis. The school’s economic diversity is moderate, and its racial composition is homogeneous. The district’s recent referendums suggest a willingness to fund operations and facilities, though the outcomes of the 2024 bond question were not part of the available data. Families who place a high value on strong state test results relative to immediate peers may want to investigate the school’s literacy instruction in grades four and five directly with the school.
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