The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Social studies. The lowest is 60% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Shorewood Intermediate
Shorewood Intermediate serves only seventh and eighth graders, which means the high school outcomes that many parents track, such as graduation rate and Advanced Placement participation, simply do not apply here. The school is the bridge between the district's elementary buildings and Shorewood High School, and its academic results give a clear picture of how students are performing in the middle years.
On the Wisconsin Forward exams, a large majority of students scored at the proficient or above level in every subject tested. In both seventh and eighth grade English language arts, roughly four out of every five students met that bar, with eighth grade social studies coming in around the same share. Math proficiency was also strong, though there was a drop between seventh and eighth grade: a higher share of seventh graders scored proficient, while eighth graders landed at just under two-thirds. Science, tested only in eighth grade, had the lowest proficiency rate of any subject, falling below three-fifths, which is a soft spot a parent may want to discuss with the school. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the top quarter of all districts in Milwaukee County, a solid showing that reflects the academic preparation students bring into these two years.
The school is part of the Shorewood School District, which recently completed a facilities bond that included a major redesign of the intermediate school, completed in 2023. The same year, the district began using a new literacy curriculum aligned with science-of-reading principles, a Wisconsin state requirement. And in spring 2025, voters approved a new operational referendum, adding funding for class sizes and student supports through the end of the decade. These are concrete, parent-relevant changes. The referendum funding does not apply to this school's grades alone, but it signals a community that continues to invest in its schools.
Shorewood itself is a dense, walkable urban village just north of Milwaukee, with a tight grid of tree-lined streets, a business district along Oakland Avenue and Capitol Drive, and easy access to Lake Michigan beaches and the Oak Leaf Trail. The housing market reflects the desirability of a mature inner-ring suburb. Home values are high and the rental market is substantial, with more than half of households renting. The village is fully built out, with no room for major new development, and its population has been slowly declining after a peak in the mid-twentieth century. This is not a growing suburban fringe. It is a stable, established community where most families who enroll at Shorewood Intermediate already live within walking or a short drive of the school.
The school's enrollment is relatively small for a two-grade building, and the student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students forming the largest minority group, followed by roughly equal shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that is low compared with many Milwaukee County schools. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available in the records we reviewed.
Because the school only covers seventh and eighth grades, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school program information such as career and technical education pathways or Advanced Placement course access. Those questions would need to be directed to Shorewood High School. For the two years a student spends here, the evidence points to a school where a strong majority of students are meeting state academic standards, where the district has recently refreshed both the physical building and the literacy curriculum, and where the surrounding community is small, urban, and well-resourced.
See more original research from School Decision →