Best Public Schools in Shell Lake, WI

Shell Lake, Wisconsin has three public schools serving about 584 students in grades PK–12, all within the Shell Lake School District: Shell Lake Primary (K-2), Shell Lake Elementary (3-6), and Shell Lake Junior/Senior High, which serves grades 7–12. Because grades 7–8 sit inside the junior/senior high, there is no standalone middle school, and middle-grade performance shows up in the high school's data. The district ranks 88 of 432 Wisconsin districts, in the 80th percentile with 4 stars.

Shell Lake Elementary (3-6) is the academic engine, earning 4 stars in all three listed rank years and posting above-state results on every listed 2025–2026 Forward Exam, including 6th grade ELA at 86.21% vs. 54.95% state and 4th grade math at 85.71% vs. 52.87%. Shell Lake Junior/Senior High combines strong completion with solid ACT results — 97.9% graduation vs. 92.0% state, 0.6% dropout vs. 1.1%, and above-state ACT scores in ELA, math, and science — though its rank has swung between 3 and 4 stars, and 10th grade social studies dropped from 64.15% to 42.22%, below the state average. Shell Lake Primary (K-2) has no test or rank data, but leads on the lowest chronic absenteeism (7.2%), smallest classes (student-teacher ratio 9.4), and lowest per-student spending ($15,891).

Attendance is a strength across the district: all three schools beat the state chronic absenteeism rate of 17.3%, with Primary at 7.2%, Elementary 3-6 at 8.4%, and the high school at 12.9% — highest of the three, but still above the district's 10.6%. Free/reduced lunch is higher in the younger grades (53.44% at Primary, 52.94% at Elementary 3-6) than at the high school (40.67%), yet Elementary 3-6 still delivers very strong scores. Class sizes are smaller in the early grades (9.4 and 9.6) than at the high school (13.4), while spending is nearly identical between the high school ($16,862) and Elementary 3-6 ($16,784). Grade-level trends are mixed: 4th grade improved sharply in every subject, 5th grade slipped in ELA and math while staying above state, and 7th and 8th grade ELA and math improved.