Pembine Elementary, Pembine WI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Pembine Elementary

Pembine Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in the Beecher-Dunbar-Pembine School District, a small, rural district in northern Marinette County, Wisconsin. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment is small, which is typical for the scattered residential and agricultural community it serves.

Pembine itself is a sparsely populated town that originated as a logging and railroad settlement. Its economy has shifted over time from lumber to potato farming to dairy, and today outdoor recreation, including snowmobiling, ATV trails, and access to public hunting land and waterfalls, is a draw. The community is car-dependent, with no public transit and a minimal center of services at the junction of two U.S. highways. The school is likely one of the larger local employers, though no specific employer data is available. The district’s recent history has little in the way of large structural changes publicly reported, so parents should check directly with the district for any current initiatives or upcoming plans.

Academically, the school participates in Wisconsin’s Forward Exam, and the data shows a varied picture across grade levels and subjects. In math, proficiency rates shift significantly from one grade to the next, with some grades showing a majority of students meeting the state’s proficiency benchmark and others showing a smaller share doing so. A parent looking at these results should note that when groups of students are as small as they are here, a single cohort’s performance can swing noticeably from year to year, and these numbers may not be as stable as they would be in a larger school.

In English language arts, the school shows a consistent pattern across grades three through six, with a majority of students reaching the proficient or advanced level in every tested grade. This is a clear strength. Science and social studies are tested only in fourth grade here, and both show strong results, with a substantial majority of students scoring at or above the proficiency standard. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among districts in Marinette County, placing it in the upper half of its local peers.

The student body is overwhelmingly white, reflecting the demographic makeup of the surrounding area. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community where many families face economic pressures. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so the school’s support for these populations is not something that can be characterized from the information on hand.

No graduation rate is reported because the school does not serve high school grades. Housing values in the area are well below the state and national benchmarks, and the local economy is rooted in agriculture and recreation rather than large-scale employment. For a family considering this school, the key factors to weigh are the small, rural setting with limited nearby amenities, the variability in math performance across grades, the consistent strength in reading and writing, and the fact that students will eventually move to a different school for grades seven through twelve. A parent who values a tight-knit, rural elementary experience and wants to understand the math results more deeply would do well to ask the school directly about curriculum, instructional approaches, and how the school addresses the dips seen in some grade levels.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 42%

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 28 pts below state median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 20 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Science

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 9 pts above state median

This schoolBeecher-Dunbar-Pembine 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 3Lower-income50%Higher-income86%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income69%Higher-income50%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income70%Higher-income64%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income57%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income17%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income60%Higher-income82%22 pp gap