Turtle Lake Middle, Turtle Lake WI

Original Research by School Decision on Turtle Lake Middle

Turtle Lake Middle School serves grades six through eight in the village of Turtle Lake, a small rural community straddling Barron and Polk counties in northwestern Wisconsin. The village is low-density, with a commercial core around the intersection of US Highways 8 and 63, and the St. Croix Casino Turtle Lake stands as a prominent local employer. The school itself is part of a single K-12 district, so the middle grades share a campus and likely a set of shared facilities and staff with the elementary and high school programs. The community is tight-knit, with a slightly declining population and a modest local economy rooted in gaming, logging history, and agriculture.

The student body is small, with roughly one hundred students spread across three grade levels. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a mix of household income levels. The population is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic and Native American students and a tiny Asian presence. The school does not report data on students with disabilities or English learners, so those details are not available from the public record.

On state assessments administered through the Wisconsin Forward exam, Turtle Lake Middle shows a mixed picture depending on subject and grade. In English language arts, proficiency across all three grades is consistent and reaches into the upper range for a school of this size and setting. Seventh grade posts the strongest result, and both sixth and eighth grade also show solid attainment. This suggests the school’s literacy instruction is broadly effective.

In math, the pattern is uneven. Sixth and seventh grade proficiency is moderate to solid, consistent with the ELA results. But eighth grade math proficiency drops sharply. That is a large enough gap that a parent moving a child into the district or preparing for high school coursework may want to ask the school what supports are in place for eighth grade math and whether this is a recent trend or a known challenge. Science and social studies are tested only in eighth grade; both show moderate proficiency, with social studies slightly stronger.

When measured against other districts in Barron County, Turtle Lake Middle’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint of the comparison set. That means the school is performing roughly in line with or a bit better than many of its rural neighbors, but it is not at the top of the county. The eighth grade math figure pulls the overall average down.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data is also not available for this entity.

For a family considering Turtle Lake Middle, the school offers a small, familiar environment where most students are known to staff. The academic program yields reasonable results in reading and writing, and math is fine through seventh grade. The eighth grade math weakness is a real point for follow-up. The community is rural and quiet, with limited commercial amenities but strong recreational trails and seasonal civic events. The housing market is relatively affordable compared to national benchmarks, and the district has not reported any major recent changes such as referendums or curriculum overhauls. This is a place where parent engagement and direct communication with the school may carry extra weight given the small scale.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 54% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 57% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 767%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

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

Science

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolTurtle Lake 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 6Lower-income33%Higher-income92%58 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income80%37 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income60%Higher-income63%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income92%65 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income72%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income19%1 pp gap