Canterbury Elementary, Greendale WI

Original Research by School Decision on Canterbury Elementary

Canterbury Elementary is a regular public school in Greendale, Wisconsin, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the Greendale School District, a system with one high school, one middle school, and two other elementary schools, all integrated into the fabric of the village itself.

Greendale is a planned community, originally built as a New Deal Greenbelt town. The village was designed so residents could walk to schools, shops, and parks. The historic downtown Village Center, with its independent shops and restaurants, sits near the schools, and the village connects to the Milwaukee County Oak Leaf Trail for walking and biking. Canterbury Elementary, like its sister schools, is a neighborhood school embedded in a setting that was intentionally laid out for family life.

The school’s academic performance on state assessments is strong. Across the tested grades of three through five, reading and math proficiency rates consistently run well above the typical range for a school in this setting. When compared to other districts across Milwaukee County, Canterbury’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile. That is a clear strength. Science and social studies results for fourth graders, the only tested grade in those subjects, are solid, with social studies outcomes particularly high. The school has participated in state testing at a very high rate, so the results offer a reliable picture of student performance.

The student body is predominantly white, with a notable share of students who are Hispanic and a smaller share who are Asian. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that is relatively modest. The school serves a community where the median household income is well above the national figure and a high portion of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. Housing values in the area are above the national median, and the village has experienced steady, moderate appreciation.

The enrollment is moderately sized for an elementary school, and the grade-by-grade distribution is fairly even, which suggests stable enrollment without dramatic swings. There is no data available on the share of students with an Individualized Education Program or who are English learners. A parent who wants to understand the school’s full range of support for those students may want to follow up with the school directly.

Canterbury is not a charter school, and its Title I status was not provided. The district itself has not recently undergone major structural changes that would substantially alter the school experience. A long-range facility master plan was presented to the board in early 2024, but it remained a planning document, not a referendum or a completed project.

The school fits a family looking for a stable, performance-rich elementary experience in an established, well-resourced suburb. The village’s original garden-city design means that daily life for a family with a young child can be walkable, with parks, a library, and the town center nearby. The combination of strong test results and a relatively low share of students from low-income households points to a peer environment where the majority of students are arriving at school academically ready. For a family that values a high-performing neighborhood school in a setting that was literally built for this purpose, Canterbury Elementary delivers that.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 76% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above county median

Grade 489%

School 89% · District 82% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 65 pts above county median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 70% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 45 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 375%

School 75% · District 76% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

Grade 478%

School 78% · District 75% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 53 pts above county median

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 69% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Science

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 68% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 486%

School 86% · District 80% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

This schoolGreendale 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-income64%Higher-income77%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income82%Higher-income77%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income67%Higher-income70%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income46%Higher-income79%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income82%Higher-income90%9 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income72%17 pp gap