Lac Du Flambeau Elementary, Lac Du Flambeau WI

Original Research by School Decision on Lac Du Flambeau Elementary

Lac du Flambeau Elementary is the only school in the Lac du Flambeau #1 School District, serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in a single campus. For families living in this rural northern Wisconsin community, this means every child in the district attends the same school until high school. The district does not operate a high school, so families will need to plan for where their children will go after eighth grade; the available data does not indicate which nearby high schools students typically attend.

The school sits within the town of Lac du Flambeau, a place shaped by its lakes, its tourism economy, and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, a federally recognized sovereign nation that is the largest employer in Vilas County. The year-round population is relatively small and currently declining, according to publicly reported estimates, but the area sees a large influx of visitors in summer. The built environment is low-density and rural, oriented around Flambeau Lake and the Highway 47 corridor, with minimal traditional walkability or street life. Tribal enterprises such as the Lake of the Torches resort and casino serve as community anchors alongside the school.

The student body is overwhelmingly American Indian, with smaller shares of students who are Hispanic or of two or more races and very few white students. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that signals a high level of economic disadvantage in the community. The school operates with a notably low student-to-teacher ratio, which publicly reported sources attribute to the district’s small enrollment and heavy reliance on federal funding. The district brief notes that this funding structure, combined with tribal education dollars, means resources can shift with policy changes.

On Wisconsin’s Forward assessments, proficiency rates across math, English language arts, science, and social studies are low in nearly every tested grade. For example, in math, the share of students reaching proficiency sits below a third in most grades tested, and in ELA it is below a quarter in several grades. Science results are similarly modest. The one area where a higher share of students met the bar is fourth-grade social studies, where a bit more than half of students scored proficient or above. Overall, the school’s combined proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Vilas County. A parent may want to ask the school directly about what academic support and intervention programs are in place, especially given that many students are performing below grade-level benchmarks.

Because this is a PK-8 school, there is no graduation rate to report. No data was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or course access, so those dimensions cannot be characterized here.

What this school offers is a small, community-anchored setting where students spend their entire elementary and middle school years in one place, surrounded by a tight-knit population with strong tribal identity and ties to the land. The trade-off is that academic outcomes are considerably lower than those in most other districts in the county, and the economic challenges facing the community are substantial. Families considering Lac du Flambeau Elementary will want to understand both the individualized attention a small school can provide and the need for supplemental academic support.

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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 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 32 pts below state median

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 38 pts below state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 30 pts below state median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 18 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 32 pts below state median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 614%

School 14% · District 14%

▼ 39 pts below state median

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 34 pts below state median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 33 pts below state median

Science

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 27 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 58%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 24 pts below state median

This schoolLac du Flambeau #1 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.