Galesville Elementary, Galesville WI

Original Research by School Decision on Galesville Elementary

Galesville Elementary serves students from preschool through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District. It sits on a campus outside the downtown area, in a small Trempealeau County city of steady growth over the past decade, surrounded by orchards, vineyards, and the wooded bluffs of the Mississippi River Valley. The enrollment is what most families would consider modest for an elementary school, and the student body is predominantly white, with a relatively small share of Hispanic students and even smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, and other racial groups. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that gives the school a notable income diversity that a parent may want to ask about in terms of school-wide support programs. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was missing from available records, so a family with a child in those categories should inquire directly about services and staffing levels.

State assessment results show a mixed picture that characterizes the school fairly. On social studies, tested in fourth grade, proficiency rates were strong, and the school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint when compared with other districts in Trempealeau County. But that average masks variability. Third-grade math and English language arts proficiency rates were at a level many families would consider solid. By fourth grade, both math and ELA rates dropped noticeably, and science proficiency in fourth grade was at a similar lower level. Fifth grade showed a rebound in math to a moderate rate, while fifth-grade ELA stayed at about the same level as fourth. Parents reading these results may want to ask the school how it supports students through the transition from primary to upper elementary, particularly in math and reading. The school's participation rates on state tests were very high, which means the results reflect nearly all enrolled students.

The building is part of a district that, according to publicly available information, has not seen major recent changes that would affect day-to-day operations or programming. The district also operates a middle school and high school in Galesville, so families with children in these elementary grades will eventually move on to those campuses. The surrounding community offers a compact downtown square with a farmers market and seasonal events, a public library, Lake Marinuka, and the Old Main Cultural Center housed in a historic college building. Housing in Galesville, based on the available market data, is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, and the area has shown steady appreciation. For a family looking for a small-town setting with an elementary school that has clear strengths in social studies and early-grade reading, but where upper-elementary math and ELA proficiency rates are lower than the county's top-performing schools, Galesville Elementary is a school worth visiting and asking detailed questions about curriculum and intervention practices in grades four and five.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 64% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 56% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 56% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 70% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 58% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 54% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Science

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 56% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 76% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolGalesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau 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 3Lower-income39%Higher-income67%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income40%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income71%33 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income31%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income58%15 pp gap