The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in Social studies. The lowest is 39% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Ithaca Middle
Ithaca Middle sits on State Highway 58 in the rural township of Ithaca, which uses a Richland Center mailing address. The school is part of the Ithaca School District, a small public system that serves students from sixth through eighth grade at this one building. The enrollment of roughly the size of a small grade school places it among the very smallest middle schools in southwest Wisconsin, and the setting is decidedly rural. The school building is the only middle-grade option in the district, so all local students in these grades attend here.
The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small numbers of Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students also enrolled. About half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that lines up with the area’s agricultural and manufacturing economy in Richland County, where dairy plants and metal-machining shops anchor employment. The county seat of Richland Center is the nearest population center, roughly a short drive north on Highway 58. It is a small city with a downtown historic district, a Frank Lloyd Wright warehouse, and modest street life centered on community events and the Pine River corridor.
On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, the school’s academic picture varies by grade and subject. In seventh grade, more than half of students scored proficient or above in both math and English language arts, which is a solid showing for a school this size. The sixth-grade results in math and ELA were closer to the halfway mark, while the eighth-grade cohort turned in lower proficiency rates overall. In eighth-grade math and ELA, roughly a third of students met proficiency, and in eighth-grade science the rate was similar. However, the eighth-grade social studies result was stronger, with more than half of students reaching proficiency.
Comparing this school’s overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades against the two districts that make up the Richland County set, Ithaca Middle sits in the top quartile. With a county of only two districts, that top-quartile placement effectively means this school’s combined proficiency is stronger than its single county neighbor. But because the cohort is small, the gap between the top and bottom is narrow, and the school’s edge is modest.
The district itself did not show any recent parent-relevant changes in publicly available records, and no strategic initiatives or building projects were identified. There is no graduation rate to report because the school ends at eighth grade. Discipline data, course access information, and staffing ratios were not available in the source data, so a parent who cares about those details would need to ask the district directly. Similarly, the share of students receiving special education services or English learner support was not reported.
For a family considering Ithaca Middle, the picture is of a very small, rural school that serves a single community. The strongest academic performance in the data appears in the seventh grade, and the eighth-grade year shows clear soft spots, particularly in math and science, that a parent may want to look into further with the school. The school’s overall academic standing is solid relative to the limited local comparison set, but the cohort of tested students is small enough that a single year’s numbers can shift noticeably. The housing context in the area is affordable relative to the state median home value, and the community is stable and slow-growing, with no major new housing developments identified. This is a school and community that fit a family seeking a small-scale, rural educational setting where the student body is homogeneous and the school is the only local option for these grades.
See more original research from School Decision →