The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Social studies. The lowest is 35% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Neillsville Middle
Neillsville Middle serves grades six through eight in the Neillsville School District, a small rural district centered on the Clark County seat. The school shares a building with the elementary school; a publicly reported renovation project for that facility was recently approved by the school board. The town itself is a compact county seat at the intersection of U.S. Highway 10 and State Highway 73, surrounded by wooded hills and the Black River. The broader economy is rooted in agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, and services, with Marshfield Medical Center as a prominent local employer. Housing values in the area are notably below national medians, reflecting the rural setting. Chippewa Valley Technical College was building a new campus in town, a signal of local investment in workforce training.
The school’s enrollment is predominantly white, with a much smaller share of students identifying as Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Black. About half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker that roughly tracks the state’s overall economic diversity. No data was available on the share of students receiving special education services or English learner supports, so we cannot characterize those populations here. Class sizes for a middle school of this size mean students are likely known by name and teachers can form close relationships across the three-grade span.
State assessment results from the Wisconsin Forward exam show a mixed picture. In English language arts, sixth and seventh graders posted proficiency rates solidly above the national district average for that subject, but eighth-grade proficiency in ELA was notably lower. In math, proficiency rates were similar across all three grades and fell below the average of their statewide peers. Science proficiency in eighth grade also lagged. Social studies, tested only in eighth grade, had the strongest showing, with roughly half of students meeting proficiency. The school’s composite proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint among districts in Clark County, where the overall range for that metric runs from a relatively low floor to a higher ceiling. A parent considering the school may want to ask about the dip in eighth-grade reading and math, and how the school addresses students who arrive below grade-level benchmarks.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The building’s proximity to the high school means that middle school students have a natural academic pipeline into Neillsville High, but data on course access, such as whether middle schoolers can take high school credits, was not provided. Discipline records, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism rates were also absent from the available data, leaving gaps in the picture of day-to-day school environment.
The district recently shifted elementary reading instruction to align with science of reading principles, a change that will reach middle school in coming years as those students move up. For a family in Neillsville or the surrounding Clark County area, this middle school offers a setting where the student body is small enough to feel familiar, the town anchors rural civic life, and the academic results suggest room for growth, particularly in math and in the later middle school years. A parent may want to visit, talk to the principal about how the school supports students who are not yet proficient, and ask about the renovation project’s timeline and its impact on classroom space.
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