The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Social studies. The lowest is 43% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Gillett Elementary
Gillett Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in a small rural city in Oconto County, about a 40-minute drive northwest of Green Bay. The school building sits on Main Street, integrated into the downtown fabric rather than on a separate campus, which is typical for a compact town where civic and school life overlap. Gillett itself has deep agricultural and logging roots and promotes itself as the ATV Capital of the World, with maintained trails and an annual fair. The texture is rural small-town Wisconsin, where local shop owners serve customers directly and conversation drifts to hunting and fishing seasons.
The elementary school enrolls roughly several hundred students, making it a modestly sized building for its grade band. The majority of students are white, with a smaller but noticeable share of Hispanic students and a handful of American Indian or multiracial students. A substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that many families face economic constraints. No data was available on the proportion of students receiving special education services or English learner support, so parents seeking that information would need to ask the school directly.
State testing results are reported for grades three through five in math and English language arts, with fourth grade also tested in science and social studies. In third grade, roughly half of students scored at or above the proficient level in both math and reading, a rate that held similarly for reading but slipped somewhat in fourth and fifth grade, where proficiency in both subjects dropped noticeably. Fourth grade science results showed about half of students proficient, and social studies came in just above that mark. Participation rates were high, above 90 percent across all tested grades, which means the results reflect nearly the entire student body. The pattern of declining proficiency as students move from third to fifth grade is a trend a parent may want to discuss with the school to understand what supports exist for older elementary students. Overall, compared with other districts in Oconto County, the school’s combined proficiency index lands below the midpoint of the county.
Because Gillett Elementary only serves through fifth grade, no graduation data exists. Other metrics that can illuminate school climate, such as chronic absenteeism or discipline rates, were not available in the data. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and there was no information on specialized programs or course offerings beyond the standard curriculum. The district that operates it, Gillett School District, was found to have no major recent changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax adjustments in publicly reported information, though this does not rule out quieter operational adjustments.
Housing in the area is notably more affordable than the national average, a factor that often draws families to rural communities like Gillett. The median home value has been rising, but remains well below typical prices in Wisconsin as a whole. The local job base leans on manufacturing, retail, and healthcare, with modest employment declines in the recent period. For a family considering this school, the key trade-off is between a small, close-knit elementary setting in a low-cost rural town and academic results that trail the county average, especially in the upper elementary grades. Parents who value that community texture and the convenience of a school integrated into downtown may find it a natural fit, while those prioritizing stronger standardized test outcomes may want to explore what academic interventions the school offers in the later years.
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