Original Research by School Decision on Prairie Du Chien High
Prairie du Chien High School serves grades nine through twelve and is the only high school in the Prairie du Chien Area School District. The school sits in the historic river city that functions as the Crawford County seat and the region's commercial hub. The school is part of a small district that comprises three schools all within the community, meaning students attend school alongside their neighbors in a compact, walkable core.
The student body at Prairie du Chien High is predominantly white, reflecting the demographics of the community, with small representations of Asian, Hispanic, Black, multiracial, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls roughly enough students to fill a midsize high school, with each grade level holding a similar number of students. The data did not include counts for students on individualized education programs or English learner services, so a parent may want to ask the school about those supports directly.
State assessment results were not available in the data we reviewed. Without test proficiency data, we cannot characterize academic performance against state averages or peer schools. The absence of this information leaves a gap that a parent would want to address by asking the school or district for its most recent report card from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. For the same reason, we cannot place the school relative to other districts in Crawford County on proficiency or graduation rate, as those metrics were also missing from the data.
The community itself offers a blend of retail, manufacturing, tourism, and government employment, with major employers including 3M, Cabela's, and Crossing Rivers Health. The city sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, with bluffs framing the landscape. St. Feriole Island provides a large riverfront park, and the city hosts year-round events. The district proposed an operational bond in 2024 to maintain existing facilities and programs, a type of referendum that directly affects the school's ability to sustain its current offerings and building conditions. This is a concrete piece of information a parent may want to track, as it signals the district's approach to long-term maintenance without expanding into new construction.
Housing in the area is priced below the national median, with values that have grown substantially in the past year, though they remain well below the state benchmark. The local unemployment rate is modestly above the national average. This economic context suggests a community where housing costs are manageable relative to many parts of Wisconsin, but where family income growth may be slower than in more urbanized regions.
Prairie du Chien High School operates as a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. The district's small size means students move through a single feeder pattern from elementary through high school. A parent considering this school would benefit from asking directly about the academic programs, course offerings, and post-graduation outcomes that are not captured in the available data, since those details would fill in the picture that state testing and graduation metrics would otherwise provide. The school's website, linked in the directory information, is the natural next stop for a parent seeking course catalogs, extracurricular offerings, and contact information for guidance staff.
See more original research from School Decision →