Deer Creek Intermediate, Saint Francis WI

Original Research by School Decision on Deer Creek Intermediate

Deer Creek Intermediate serves grades four through eight in the Saint Francis School District, a small residential suburb of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. The school is one of three campuses in the district, sitting between Willow Glen Primary School and Saint Francis High School. The city is compact and landlocked, bordered by Milwaukee, Cudahy, Lake Michigan, and Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Its civic life is centered on Howard Avenue, with seasonal community events like Concerts in the Park and St. Francis Days, but the city has a relatively flat population trajectory and no traditional downtown commercial district. The district recently invested a substantial sum in capital construction, a signal of facilities upgrades that may be visible to families at Deer Creek.

The student body is predominantly white, with a significant Hispanic enrollment and smaller shares of students who identify as two or more races, Black, or Asian. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school about those supports directly.

On state assessments, Deer Creek shows a pattern where math proficiency generally runs ahead of English language arts, though both subjects have considerable variation by grade level. In math, the school’s strongest results were at fifth and seventh grades, with more than half of students scoring proficient or above, while fourth and eighth grades were lower, with fewer than half reaching that bar. In English language arts, the share of proficient students was highest at eighth grade and lowest at sixth grade, with a roughly even split at seventh grade. Science results were stronger at fourth grade than at eighth grade, while social studies had a solid showing in fourth grade and a similar result in eighth grade. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index placed it above the midpoint among reporting schools in Milwaukee County, meaning it performs in the upper half of that countywide comparison. The school had high participation rates on every assessment, with full participation in most grade-level tests.

Because Deer Creek is a middle-grades school, there is no graduation rate to report—that metric applies to the high school. The school does not serve high school grades, so families should look to Saint Francis High School for that information.

The school functions as a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. No additional program offerings were provided, so families interested in specific academic tracks, electives, or extracurriculars should explore the school’s website or contact the campus directly.

For a parent evaluating Deer Creek, the picture is of a mid-sized intermediate school in a small, stable suburb whose academic results are solid by county standards but uneven across grade levels and subjects. The math performance in the middle grades is a relative strength, while English language arts has room for improvement, especially in the sixth grade. The district’s recent facilities investment suggests that the physical learning environment has received attention. The lack of data on special education and English learner populations is a gap worth probing. Families who value a compact, lake-adjacent community with a small-town feel and easy access to downtown Milwaukee may find Saint Francis and Deer Creek Intermediate a fitting option, particularly if they are comfortable asking the school about the areas where the available data is incomplete.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 51%

even with state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 59%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

This schoolSaint Francis 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 4Lower-income33%Higher-income57%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income52%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income48%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income55%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income52%Higher-income58%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income62%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income52%Higher-income72%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income65%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income73%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income50%12 pp gap