Summary:
Ladysmith, Wisconsin is served by three public schools in the Ladysmith School District — one elementary, one middle, and one high school — with no alternative school, enrolling a combined 727 students across PK–12. That total breaks down into 328 students at Ladysmith Elementary (PK–5), 144 at Ladysmith Middle (6–8), and 255 at Ladysmith High (9–12). At the district level, the system ranks 364 of 432 in Wisconsin — the 16th percentile with a 1-star rating — but the individual schools look quite different from one another.
Ladysmith Middle is the clear bright spot: the only school rated 3 stars, at the 50th percentile, and the only one beating the state in several areas, including 7th- and 8th-grade math (65% vs. 55.67% and 67.5% vs. 53.67%), 8th-grade ELA, science, and social studies. It also has the lowest student-teacher ratio (9.7), the highest per-student spending ($17,793), and a 0.0% dropout rate, though 6th-grade results and 8th-grade science softened this year. Ladysmith Elementary stands out for attendance — 8.9% chronic absenteeism, less than half the state's 17.3% — and improved in several subjects, but remains 1 star at the 24th percentile, with 4th-grade math the starkest gap (22.22% vs. 52.87% state). Ladysmith High has slipped from 2 stars to 1 star, and all four reported 10th-grade indicators are below state, with social studies (24.53% vs. 48.25%) and ACT math (24.14% vs. 42.93%) showing the largest gaps.
Across all three schools, chronic absenteeism sits below the state rate, and high school graduation (90.9%) and dropout (1.1%) are near state averages. Free/reduced lunch is roughly two-thirds at the elementary and middle and about half at the high school. Notably, resources and outcomes do not line up simply: the middle spends the most and performs best, but each grade there holds only about 48 students, so year-to-year swings can be volatile.
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