Howards Grove Middle, Howards Grove WI

Original Research by School Decision on Howards Grove Middle

Howards Grove Middle serves grades five through eight in the Howards Grove School District, a small, rural village in Sheboygan County. The village describes itself as a quiet, centrally located community with farming roots that go back to the 1840s, and the district’s three schools are woven into the residential fabric rather than set on isolated campuses. The middle school itself recently moved into the high school building, a consolidation that took place in 2025. Most residents commute outside the village for work, and the community relies on Sheboygan, a short drive away, for most shopping, dining, and services.

This is a mid-sized middle school. The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of students who identify as two or more races, Asian, or Hispanic. A relatively modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is on the lower side compared to many districts in the state.

On state assessments, results are uneven across grade levels and subjects, which is a pattern a parent will want to understand more fully by talking with the school. In math, proficiency rates are strongest in the lower grades and decline as students get older, with a clear drop-off by eighth grade. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: fifth and sixth graders perform at a higher level, while seventh and eighth graders show a notable dip. Eighth graders also take science and social studies tests; performance in social studies is stronger than in science. Overall, the school’s combined proficiency index sits just below the midpoint among districts in Sheboygan County, meaning its aggregate results are in the middle of the pack locally. A parent might ask the school about the downward trend in the upper middle grades and what supports are in place.

Data on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, discipline rates, and course access were not available, so those are gaps a parent would want to fill directly. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to consider. The district passed a three-year operational referendum in 2024 that provides additional funding through the 2026-27 school year, which supports current programming, but that funding is temporary unless renewed.

The village itself is quiet and car-dependent, with a small commercial core along the highway intersection. Housing values in the area are close to the state median, and the community has seen steady but slow growth in recent decades. For a family looking for a small, rural middle school environment with a traditional grade structure and a student body that is relatively homogeneous, Howards Grove Middle fits that profile. The test results suggest the early middle school years are stronger than the later ones, and that is the main thing to investigate further.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 590%

School 90% · District 90%

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 83%

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

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 75%

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

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 70%

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

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 6 pts above state median · even with county median

This schoolHowards Grove 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-income50%Higher-income74%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income78%3 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income40%Higher-income61%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income62%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income80%Higher-income92%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income85%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income60%Higher-income78%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income39%Higher-income68%29 pp gap