The top reported proficiency rate is 79% in Social studies. The lowest is 53% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Marathon Elementary
Marathon Elementary serves students from four-year-old kindergarten through fifth grade in the Village of Marathon City, a small commercial hub that sits above the Big Rib River at the intersection of two state highways in central Wisconsin. The school is the sole elementary campus of the Marathon City School District. The surrounding Town of Marathon is rural and low density, with homes and farms spread along county roads, while the village itself functions as an employment center anchored by three corporate headquarters: Marathon Cheese Corporation, Menzner Hardwoods, and County Materials Corporation. These employers have invested heavily in recent years, with new facilities in the Marathon City Business Park and a tax increment district generating substantial new value. The community’s economy is a blend of manufacturing, agriculture, and small business.
The school’s enrollment is, for its grade band, moderate in size. The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of students identified as Asian, Hispanic, or of two or more races, and very small numbers of Black or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure that places the school in a middle range on economic need for the area. Data on the share of students with disabilities and English learners were not available, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about those supports.
On the Wisconsin Forward assessments, the school’s results are a mixed picture with clear pockets of strength. In math, proficiency rates across third, fourth, and fifth grade cluster in a range that is solid for a school of this type. In English language arts, fourth graders performed noticeably stronger than their third- and fifth-grade peers. Science proficiency in fourth grade was a strong point, and social studies in fourth grade was a high performer, with a rate that stands out as the school’s strongest tested area. When compared with other school districts across Marathon County, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, meaning that across tested subjects and grades its typical student is performing at a level that is among the higher end for the county. There is a noticeable dip in fifth-grade ELA proficiency, however, and a parent may want to explore what academic support is available for older elementary students as they approach the transition to middle school.
The school participates fully in testing, with complete participation rates reported across all grades and subjects. Because Marathon Elementary serves only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the school does not administer high school-level assessments. No chronic absenteeism data were available in the records reviewed, so the district’s approach to attendance is something a parent would need to learn from the school directly.
The broader district did not have any recent parent-relevant changes surfaced in available public records, so there are no major policy shifts, boundary changes, or program overhauls to account for. The school appears to operate as a stable elementary program within a district that serves the Marathon community through the high school grades at a separate campus. The Village of Marathon City promotes its schools as award-winning, and the proximity to Northcentral Technical College, within a half-hour drive, signals some local commitment to postsecondary pathways even at the elementary level.
For a family, the read here is of a small-town elementary school in a community with a strong manufacturing and agricultural economic base, where the academic results are generally above the midpoint for the county, strongest in science and social studies, with a softer spot in fifth-grade reading that would be worth a follow-up conversation. The setting offers rural living with a concentrated village center that provides employment and a modest commercial strip. The student body is not highly diverse, and the income profile is moderate. Parents who value a stable, well-tested elementary program in a community with local industry and a low-density feel are likely to find a good fit here.
See more original research from School Decision →