Muskego Lakes Middle, Muskego WI

Original Research by School Decision on Muskego Lakes Middle

Muskego Lakes Middle School serves grades five through eight in the Muskego-Norway School District, drawing from a suburban community built around lakes and larger residential lots southwest of Milwaukee. The city of Muskego is primarily a bedroom community for Milwaukee, with homes spread across a substantial land area that includes three lakes, lakefront parks, and a significant Norwegian American population. The community has grown steadily as housing development has reshaped what was once agricultural land, though that growth appears to have moderated in recent decades. Lakeview Elementary serves some Muskego residents but sits just outside city limits in the Town of Norway, so families should check elementary attendance boundaries as they consider the feeder pattern into this middle school.

The school enrolls enough students to run a full grade-level program in each of its four grades. The student body is overwhelmingly White, with a modest Hispanic population and very small shares of Asian, Black, multiracial, and Native American students. About one in nine students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that positions the school as serving a relatively affluent population. This combination of demographics will feel familiar to families looking at other suburban Waukesha County districts. Data on special education identification and English learner status were not provided, so a parent with a child who receives those services may want to ask the school directly about staffing and program design.

State testing results from the 2024-25 school year show strong academic performance overall. In mathematics, proficiency rates were high across every grade level, with each grade clearing a clear majority proficient and several reaching very high levels. English language arts results were also solid, but they varied noticeably by grade. The fifth-grade ELA score was lower than the rest of the school, a gap that a parent may want to discuss with the school to understand what supports are in place for students transitioning into middle school. By sixth grade, ELA proficiency rose sharply and stayed strong through eighth grade. In eighth-grade science, just over three-fifths of students scored proficient, a result below the school's own math and ELA marks but still well within a reasonable range. Social studies in eighth grade was stronger. Participation rates on all tests were very high, so the results reflect nearly the full student body.

The school overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint when compared to other districts across Waukesha County, a densely packed field of high-performing suburban systems. That means Muskego Lakes Middle is not at the very top of the county, but it is clearly above average for a competitive area. Because the comparison is against districts rather than individual middle schools, the positioning is a useful rough gauge rather than a precise ranking. There was no graduation rate to report because this is a middle school. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the available records.

No program offerings were listed in the data provided, and the district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or construction projects. A parent researching this school would be well served to visit the building, speak with the administration about what electives, music, and advanced coursework are available in the middle grades, and verify the feeder alignment from the elementary attendance area. The housing market in Muskego shows expensive home values relative to state and national benchmarks, with a median listing price that reflects the area's desirability and its lake-adjacent, suburban character. That cost of entry shapes the peer environment families will encounter.

This is a school where a child who arrives performing at or near grade level is likely to sustain or increase that trajectory, especially in math. The dip in fifth-grade reading scores is worth investigating, but the recovery in later grades suggests the school addresses it or that students grow into the expectations. A family moving to Muskego for the lakes, the relative space, and the Milwaukee commute will find a middle school that delivers reliably above-average results for its county.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 580%

School 80% · District 84% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 692%

School 92% · District 87% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 788%

School 88% · District 86% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 886%

School 86% · District 85% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 67% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 687%

School 87% · District 81% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 782%

School 82% · District 80% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 77% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 65% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 79% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolMuskego-Norway 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-income25%Higher-income64%39 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income64%Higher-income90%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income83%15 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income79%43 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income87%41 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income79%Higher-income93%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income79%Higher-income89%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income90%55 pp gap