Birchwood School District

The Birchwood School District is a small Wisconsin district serving roughly 217 students in PK–12 across five schools: Birchwood Elementary (PK–5), Birchwood Public Montessori (PK–6), Birchwood Middle (6–8), Birchwood High (9–12), and Bobcat Virtual Academy (PK–12). The district overall is rated 270th of 432 Wisconsin districts, at the 38th percentile with 2 stars, but that figure appears on every school record and is a district-level measure, not each school's own rating.

Birchwood High is the clear standout, ranked 44th of 533 schools at the 92nd percentile with 5 stars in 2025–2026, up from 3 stars two years earlier. It exceeds district and state in every reported subject — Science ACT was 71.43% vs the state's 43.2% — and has the lowest free/reduced lunch rate (30.51%) and highest per-student spending ($30,363). Its main warning sign is a 3.3% dropout rate, above district and state. Birchwood Middle shows the sharpest reversal, falling to 16th percentile with 1 star, with 0% proficiency in 8th grade ELA and math and the district's highest chronic absenteeism at 22.2%; 7th grade math (66.67%) was a bright spot.

For younger students, Birchwood Elementary is at 27th percentile with 1 star and improving slowly, but math lags far below state in every tested grade (16.67%, 36.36%, 29.41%). Birchwood Public Montessori has real strengths — 4th grade science at 77.78% and 5th grade ELA at 62.5% — yet 5th grade math was 12.5%. Bobcat Virtual Academy, with only 11 students, reports no test-score data, and its 0.0% absenteeism and dropout rates should not be overgeneralized.