Fox Cities schools rank towards the top in best Wisconsin elementary and middle schools

APPLETON - U.S. News and World Report released their elementary and middle school rankings for Wisconsin Thursday, and several schools in the Fox Cities are near the top of the list.

While this outlet is best known for their rankings of colleges and high schools, they also have started ranking elementary and middle schools state by state. In all, nearly 2,000 elementary schools and nearly 1,500 middle schools in Wisconsin were ranked. There is no national ranking.

The rankings use publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education. According to U.S. News and World Report, half the score each school received is based on test scores, while the other half models how much each school outperformed baseline expectations based on student demographics. Where there were ties, student-teacher ratios were used as the tiebreakers. Also, since the rankings rely on public data, only public schools and publicly funded charter schools were ranked.

The ranking is based on academic data alone, as U.S. News and World Report explained in a news release Nov. 14: "Nonacademic factors also matter in evaluating schools, but in this space we are measuring what can be fairly measured, and the academic performance of their children’s schools are generally of high importance to families."

Kimberly Area School District Administrative Building on July 26, 2023.
Kimberly Area School District Administrative Building on July 26, 2023.

Fox Cities elementary schools ranked in the top 100 in Wisconsin:

Sunrise Elementary (No. 23): Kimberly Area School District, serving kindergarten through fourth grade.

Woodland Elementary (No. 60): Kimberly Area School District, serving kindergarten through fourth grade.

New Directions Learning Community (No. 74): Kaukauna Area School District, serving preschool through fourth grade.

Fox Cities middle schools ranked in the top 100 in Wisconsin:

Woodland Intermediate (No. 2): Kimberly Area School District, serving fifth and sixth grade

Classical School (No. 8): Appleton Area School District, serving kindergarten through eighth grade.

Fox West Academy (No. 24): Hortonville Area School District, serving sixth through eighth grade.

Horace Mann Middle School (No. 29): Neenah Joint School District, serving fourth through sixth grade.

Gerritts Middle (No. 46): Kimberly Area School District, serving seventh and eighth grade.

Little Chute Intermediate (No. 55): Little Chute Area School District, serving fifth and sixth grade.

Little Chute Middle (No. 63): Little Chute Area School District, serving seventh and eighth grade.

Mapleview Intermediate (No. 72): Kimberly Area School District, serving fifth and sixth grade.

Hortonville Middle (No. 99): Hortonville Area School District, serving fifth to eighth grade.

Rebecca Loroff is a breaking and trending news reporter for northeastern Wisconsin. Contact her with story tips and feedback at rloroff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton, Kimberly, Neenah, Kaukauna, Little Chute, Hortonville schools rank high in Wisconsin