Summary:
Elementary Schools in the Ashland School District include two PK–5 schools—Lake Superior Elementary, with 603 students, and Marengo Valley Elementary, with 184 students—serving about 787 students combined in Wisconsin. The larger school is roughly 3.3 times bigger, and the district overall is rated 345 of 432, in the 20th percentile with 1 star. That rating masks large school-level differences.
Marengo Valley Elementary is the standout: its 2025–2026 rank was 291 of 1,039, or 72nd percentile with 4 stars, up from 40th percentile and 2 stars in 2024–2025. Its chronic absenteeism was 9.6%, far below the state’s 17.3% and the district’s 28.3%. This is notable because it has a higher free/reduced-lunch rate than Lake Superior Elementary—67.93% vs. 57.21%—and spends less per student—$15,450 vs. $16,276—with a slightly higher student-teacher ratio, 14.8 vs. 13.2. Yet its average across eight reported tests was about 67.7% in 2025–2026, compared with 39.6% at Lake Superior. It exceeded the state in 7 of 8 reported tests; its only below-state result was 4th grade Social Studies at 61.54% vs. 65.51%.
Lake Superior Elementary has been stable and low: its percentile rank moved only from 19 to 22 to 22, and it remained at 1 star across all three reported years; in 2025–2026 it ranked 812 of 1,039, or 22nd percentile with 1 star. In 2025–2026, every reported subject/grade proficiency score was below both the district and state, and none exceeded 50%; its lowest score was 4th grade Mathematics at 24.44%, compared with 33.33% for the district and 52.87% for the state. Its chronic absenteeism was 17.4%, essentially at the state rate but far above Marengo Valley Elementary’s. The school did show some 3rd grade improvement, but older-grade results declined or stayed weak, leaving its overall average nearly flat. For parents, these two schools have very different profiles: one is high-performing with low absenteeism despite a higher free/reduced-lunch rate and lower spending, while the other is larger with stable 1-star results and test scores below district and state levels.
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