Arbor Vitae-woodruff Elementary, Arbor Vitae WI

Original Research by School Decision on Arbor Vitae-woodruff Elementary

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary serves the Woodruff J1 School District, a small, single-school district that covers kindergarten through eighth grade in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and because it does not serve high school grades there is no graduation rate to report.

The school is situated in Arbor Vitae, a rural town built around lakes and state-owned forestland. The town has no traditional downtown or sidewalk corridor; civic life centers on the town hall and a volunteer fire department. The population is modest year-round but swells markedly in the summer as vacationers arrive. The town shares a postal identity with neighboring Woodruff, and students who continue past eighth grade move on to a high school outside this district. The Woodruff J1 district is a PK-8 system, and publicly reported sources show no recent major referendums, curriculum overhauls, or property-tax shifts that have reshaped the district in the last few years.

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary enrolls a student body of a size that is moderate for an elementary and middle school combined. The student population is predominantly white, with a notable share of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a small Hispanic presence. Slightly under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic need that is present but not dominant. Data on students with individualized education plans and English learners was not available in the source materials, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about special education staffing and English language support.

On state assessments, the school’s performance across tested subjects and grades, when taken together, lands above the midpoint and within the top tier among the five districts in Vilas County. That is a solid position. In English language arts, the school’s results are broadly steady: the majority of students in each tested grade from third through eighth scored proficient or above, though the share varies by grade. In mathematics, the pattern is more uneven. Third, fourth, and eighth graders showed relatively strong proficiency rates, while fifth, sixth, and seventh graders had a lower share reaching proficiency. Science results were available for fourth and eighth grades, with a large majority of fourth graders proficient while eighth graders were below that mark. Social studies, tested in fourth and eighth grades, showed a large majority of fourth graders proficient and a smaller majority of eighth graders proficient. Overall, the school shows a pattern of stronger early-elementary performance, particularly in fourth grade, with a dip in the middle grades that a parent may want to ask the middle-school team about.

The housing context for families in this area reflects a market where values are close to the statewide benchmark for Wisconsin and above the national figure. The local economy is driven by tourism, recreation, and seasonal lodging, and the town’s growth has been modest rather than rapid. The constrained development environment, with extensive state-owned land, may appeal to families looking for a stable, low-density setting.

For a parent or resident considering this school, the picture is of a small, rural elementary and middle school that delivers generally solid academic results for its county, with particularly strong fourth-grade outcomes and a softer stretch in the middle-school math years. The district is a single-school system, so there are no intra-district school choice options. The community is lake-oriented and seasonal, with limited commercial infrastructure and no library within town. Families who value a quiet Northwoods setting, a school that serves the full K-8 span, and a district small enough that administrators and teachers are likely to know students by name may find this a good fit. Families focused on the middle-grade math dip or on special education or English learner services should look into those areas further with the school directly, since the published data leaves those details unaddressed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 46%

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 750%

School 50% · District 49% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 12 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 51%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 61% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Science

Grade 473%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 480%

School 80% · District 80%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 58%

▼ 6 pts below state median

This schoolWoodruff J1 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-income47%Higher-income75%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income62%Higher-income69%7 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income69%26 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income56%14 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income72%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income68%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income82%40 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income69%Higher-income72%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income63%44 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income65%33 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income39%Higher-income59%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income73%38 pp gap