Northwestern Area School District 56-7

Northwestern Area School District 56-7 serves 298 students in four schools, from prekindergarten through grade 12: Northwestern Elementary (PK–5), Northwestern Middle (6–8), Northwestern High (9–12), and Hutterville Colony Elementary (K–8). The most important takeaway is that results vary sharply: Northwestern Elementary is strongest overall, while Hutterville has the lowest reported all-grades ELA result.

In 2025–26, Northwestern Elementary led the schools with reported all-grades Smarter Balanced results: its ELA score was 59%, compared with 49% at Northwestern Middle and 10% at Hutterville, and its math score was 63%, versus 42% at the middle school. Elementary was 10 percentage points above the state in ELA and 20 points above in math; Hutterville’s ELA was 39 points below the state. Northwestern Middle was close to the state in ELA and 2 points below in math. Northwestern High was below state results on its ACT tests: 42% in ELA, 20% in math, and 33% in science, compared with state scores of 48%, 34%, and 45%. Its graduation rate was 68%, 20 points below the state, though its dropout rate was 0%. These comparisons are not fully like-for-like because school grade spans and sizes differ.

Recent score changes were mixed: Northwestern Elementary gained 5 points in ELA and 16 in math, while Northwestern Middle fell 17 points in ELA and 6 in math; Hutterville’s ELA result dropped 8 points. SchoolDigger rankings also shifted: Elementary moved from 133rd of 300 schools (56th percentile) to 57th of 203 (72nd percentile), while Middle moved from 48th of 246 (80th percentile) to 84th of 151 (44th percentile), and High from 20th of 166 (88th percentile) to 115th of 130 (12th percentile). Student-teacher ratios were 14:1 at Elementary and 5.5:1 at Hutterville; Hutterville’s small size did not mean higher reported ELA results. The free/reduced lunch eligible measure was 19% at Elementary, 16% at Middle, and 14% at High in 2024–25; Hutterville’s was 18% in 2022–23, so it is from an earlier year. High School’s test changed between the years shown, so its test scores do not establish a year-over-year trend.