The top reported proficiency rate is 73% in Math. The lowest is 51% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Washington Middle
Washington Middle in Oconto Falls serves grades six through eight as the district’s dedicated intermediate school, though families should know that the district has since opened a new middle school building at a different address. The older Washington Middle facility on South Washington Street remains the entity captured in testing data, but the district website now labels the newer Oconto Falls Middle School on North Farm Road as its current middle school. This means the physical building a student attends may differ from what the name and address on this profile suggest, and the new facility represents a lasting capital investment that changes the daily environment for middle-grade students.
Academically, Washington Middle performed well overall on Wisconsin’s Forward assessments, landing in the top quartile among its county’s districts. Math proficiency was strong across all three grades, with the share of students scoring proficient or above holding steady in the low-to-mid range typical of a solid middle school. English language arts results were more varied: a large majority of sixth graders met proficiency, a solid majority of seventh graders did so as well, but only about half of eighth graders reached that bar. Science proficiency for eighth graders was roughly half the cohort, while social studies proficiency was a more comfortable majority. The pattern suggests that students generally arrive in sixth grade with solid reading skills, but the dip in eighth-grade ELA is a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school, especially since it coincides with the tested year for science and social studies. Participation rates on state tests were high across the board.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races. Just under two out of five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a moderate-income range for a Wisconsin public school. Because the school serves only middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data available did not include counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so a full picture of special education and language support is not available from the testing records.
Oconto Falls is a small city of modest population, historically a lumber and paper-mill town where the Oconto River divides the community into east and west sides. The Oconto Falls School District is a major local employer alongside the hospital. The built environment is small-town: a Main Street corridor, residential neighborhoods, an industrial park set apart from the core, and riverfront beaches with pavilions. Annual events like Memorial Day Weekend and Falls Fest bring concentrated activity. There is no public transit system identified. The community’s growth has been incremental, with recent development focused on the new school athletic field and the new middle school building itself rather than rapid housing expansion. Housing values in the area sit below state and national benchmarks, which may be relevant for families weighing affordability.
Families considering this school have an additional choice: the district partners with Rural Virtual Academy to offer a full-time virtual learning option, an established alternative that has enrolled a small but steady number of students in recent years. For those choosing in-person middle school, the new building represents a significant upgrade from the prior Washington Middle facility, though the testing profile and student composition associated with Washington Middle are likely to carry over as the student population and staff move to the new site. The academic picture is one of a solid middle school with strengths in math and early middle-grade reading, a softer point in eighth-grade ELA, and a strong showing relative to other districts in Oconto County.
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