Waunakee Prairie Elementary, Waunakee WI

Original Research by School Decision on Waunakee Prairie Elementary

Waunakee Prairie Elementary serves students from four-year-old kindergarten through fourth grade and is one of three elementary schools in the Waunakee Community School District. It sits on the north and west side of Waunakee, a village that blends residential neighborhoods with a compact downtown and a business park hosting manufacturing and brewing operations. Waunakee is a suburb of Madison and has been growing steadily; a new middle school broke ground in 2024, and the district opened a new elementary school the same year, reflecting enrollment-driven investment.

The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, Black, and multiracial students. A very small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of household income that is well below the typical level for a public school. The school does not receive Title I funding, which aligns with its low concentration of economic disadvantage. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available.

State testing results place Waunakee Prairie Elementary in a strong position relative to other schools in its county. On the Wisconsin Forward Exam, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits in the top quartile among Dane County schools. In fourth grade, a substantial majority of students scored at the proficient or advanced level in English language arts, math, science, and social studies. Third-grade results were somewhat lower in both English language arts and math, though still reaching the majority proficient mark. The school’s rate of participation in state testing was high at every grade level.

Because Waunakee Prairie serves only early elementary grades, there is no graduation rate and no chronic absenteeism data to report. These measures apply to secondary schools and are simply not generated for a PK-4 building.

Housing in the village commands a price well above the state median, and rents are also elevated relative to national averages. This makes the area a more expensive entry point for families; the typical home value and rent suggest that the neighborhood skews toward households with above-average income. The comparison of estimated monthly mortgage costs to rents indicates that renting is the more affordable option in the current market, though both are high relative to what a typical household would pay.

A parent considering Waunakee Prairie should understand that it is a feeder school within a district that operates distinct grade configurations: three elementary schools for grades PK-4, a separate intermediate school for grades 5-6, a middle school for grades 7-8, and a high school. The school itself is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and does not have any special admissions process. The strongest signal from the available data is consistently strong academic performance on state assessments, particularly by the time students reach fourth grade, and a community context of steady growth, high housing costs, and low economic diversity among the student body. A family moving to Waunakee should verify which attendance zone they fall into, as boundaries were redrawn when the district’s newest elementary school opened.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 66% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 476%

School 76% · District 73% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 71% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 476%

School 76% · District 78% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Science

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 70% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 478%

School 78% · District 83% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

This schoolWaunakee Community 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 3Lower-income43%Higher-income62%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income68%40 pp gap