Bessie Allen Middle, North Fond Du Lac WI

Original Research by School Decision on Bessie Allen Middle

Bessie Allen Middle serves students in sixth through eighth grade and is a regular public school within the North Fond du Lac School District. The school is embedded in the residential fabric of North Fond du Lac, a small, compact village in Fond du Lac County. The village has a primarily residential character with modest single-family homes, and its largest employment sectors are manufacturing, construction, and accommodation and food services. The school building sits on McKinley Street, and the district also operates an elementary school and a high school, all within the village, so the schools are integrated into the neighborhood rather than isolated on a separate campus.

The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population making up the next largest group. A modest number of students are identified as two or more races, and very few are Asian or Black. Just under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that indicates a meaningful level of economic need among the families the school serves. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the records provided, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about supports for those groups.

State testing results are reported for the Wisconsin Forward exam. Across all three grade levels, proficiency rates in English language arts fall below what many parents would hope for, with roughly one in three students scoring proficient or above in each grade. Math results are a bit stronger than ELA in seventh and eighth grade, but still mean that more than half of students in each grade are not meeting the proficient benchmark. Science proficiency is notably lower, while social studies shows a somewhat higher rate, though still not reaching half of students. When compared to other districts in Fond du Lac County, Bessie Allen Middle sits in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, meaning its composite results are weaker than most of its county neighbors.

Because the school serves only middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and no information about course access or program offerings was available in the data. The district brief showed no recent major changes or initiatives that would alter a family's decision, and the school itself appears to be operating on a stable, traditional middle school model. The village has seen notable population growth and rising home values, which may signal a community that is gradually expanding rather than shrinking.

A family considering Bessie Allen Middle should weigh its role as a neighborhood school serving a community with a manufacturing and working-class economic base against the academic performance data, which suggests that many students arrive at or leave the school without having reached proficiency in core subjects. The school's small size and village setting mean that a student would attend school close to home in a familiar environment. The absence of data on student support services, discipline, and staffing, as well as the lack of specific elective or enrichment program information, leaves some important questions for a parent to investigate on a school visit.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 40% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 35% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 33% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Science

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 27%

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

This schoolNorth Fond du Lac 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 6Lower-income19%Higher-income56%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income43%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income47%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income50%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income57%33 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income53%27 pp gap