Elmwood Middle, Elmwood WI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Elmwood Middle

Elmwood Middle serves grades five through eight in the Elmwood School District, a single-building K-12 system at the center of this small, rural Pierce County village. The school is a regular public school. Its enrollment is modest for a middle school, and the student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small number of Hispanic students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, giving the school a moderate level of economic diversity.

State testing results from the Wisconsin Forward exam place Elmwood Middle in the top quartile for overall proficiency among districts in Pierce County, a strong showing. Across tested grades, math proficiency reaches about three-quarters of students in each grade, while English language arts proficiency sits in the mid-seventies to mid-eighties, with the highest rate in fifth grade. Science and social studies, tested only in eighth grade, each see proficiency above four in five students. Participation was complete across all tests. These numbers reflect consistent academic performance across the middle grades, with a particular strength in literacy and in the upper-grade science and social studies outcomes. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism and special populations such as students with disabilities and English learners were not available. A parent looking for a fuller picture of student support may want to ask the school directly about those areas.

The village of Elmwood is a small, rural place along the Eau Galle River, with a slowly declining population. It is almost entirely residential, with a compact downtown centered on Main and Winter streets. The school building sits within or very close to that downtown core; its athletic fields double as community event space during the annual UFO Days festival, a local tradition that draws on the area’s quirky history of reported sightings. There are no major private employers in the village—the school district and village government are the main local workplaces—and most working residents likely commute to Menomonie, about a reasonable drive east, or farther to the Twin Cities region. Housing values are below the state median, and the area has seen no notable new development. The village is car-dependent and lacks public transit.

The district itself reported no recent major changes or strategic initiatives in publicly available sources, suggesting a stable environment with little administrative churn. That stability, combined with the school’s strong academic performance and very small scale, makes Elmwood Middle a good fit for families who want a tight-knit rural school where their child will be known by name. The community is homogenous and quiet, and the school functions as a central civic anchor alongside the library and village hall. A parent considering this school should weigh the academic strengths and the intimate setting against the limited local economic and cultural opportunities, and the fact that many enrichment options and program details—such as course access or staffing ratios—are not detailed in the available data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 24 pts above state median

Grade 679%

School 79% · District 79%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 77% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 25 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 585%

School 85% · District 85%

▲ 34 pts above state median

Grade 679%

School 79% · District 79%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 81% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 28 pts above state median

Science

Grade 884%

School 84% · District 85% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 33 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 884%

School 84% · District 85% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 20 pts above state median

This schoolElmwood 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 5Lower-income57%Higher-income100%43 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income71%Higher-income82%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income63%Higher-income83%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income57%Higher-income85%28 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income71%Higher-income82%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income63%Higher-income83%21 pp gap