The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in Social studies. The lowest is 50% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Haugen Elementary
Haugen Elementary is a small, regular public school in rural northwestern Wisconsin, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade as part of the Rice Lake Area School District. The school is located within the village of Haugen itself, a very small rural community along U.S. Highway 53 with a primarily residential character and a high homeownership rate. Haugen’s population peaked decades ago and has generally declined since, though recent estimates suggest a slight rebound. The village has a modest historical footprint, including the ZCBJ Hall and the Haugen Area Historical Museum, but it offers little commercial development. The nearest larger service center, Rice Lake, is a short drive to the south, and that is where secondary schools and broader community services are located. For a family considering this school, the setting is distinctly rural and car-oriented, with a small, stable population and limited growth pressure.
Enrollment at Haugen Elementary is small, which is typical for a village of this size. The student body is predominantly white, with very small numbers of students who identify as Hispanic or as two or more races. Nearly half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of economic need that is a meaningful factor in the school’s context. The school serves only early elementary grades, which means it does not offer programs like AP, career pathways, or dual credit that would apply to older students. It also means there is no graduation rate to report, as those measures are not applicable to a PK-04 building. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the sources reviewed.
State testing results are available for third and fourth graders. On the Wisconsin Forward Exam, a parent looking at the data will see that performance varied by subject and grade level. In English language arts, third graders posted a rate of proficiency that outpaced the school’s own fourth-grade result. In math, the pattern was similar, with third graders achieving at a higher level than fourth graders. Fourth graders were tested in science and social studies as well, and the results there were notably stronger for social studies than for science. All tested grade levels had small groups of students, which is expected given the school’s size. Participation rates on the exams were complete for all tested groups. When placed against other districts in Barron County, Haugen Elementary’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits in the top quartile. This suggests that, compared to its county peers, the school’s academic performance is on the stronger side, though the small cohort size means these results can shift from year to year.
No information was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, or course access from the data provided. The district itself appears to have undergone no recent parent-relevant changes that were publicly reported. The Rice Lake Area School District oversees Haugen Elementary, and the school functions as a neighborhood elementary school for the village and its immediate surroundings. Families who live in Haugen will send their children here for the early grades, and those children will then move on to other district schools for upper elementary and beyond.
For a parent or resident trying to understand what this school offers, the picture is straightforward. This is a very small, rural elementary school serving a stable, predominantly white community with a notable share of families experiencing economic need. Academically, it performs competitively within Barron County, particularly in the early grades. The school is embedded in the village itself, not on a separated campus, and it serves as a civic anchor alongside the historical museum and the historic ZCBJ Hall. A family considering Haugen Elementary should expect a tight-knit, small-scale environment where class sizes are necessarily small and where the community’s rural character is front and center. There is no pretense of extensive program offerings or secondary pathways, as the school does not serve those grades. The academic evidence available points to solid proficiency in the early elementary years, with some variation across subjects that a parent may wish to ask the school about directly. This school fits a family seeking a small, rural, community-anchored elementary experience within a district that sends students to Rice Lake for later grades.
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