Summary:
North Lakeland School District in northern Wisconsin is a single-school district, so everything reported at the district level comes from one campus: North Lakeland Elementary in Manitowish Waters, a small PK–8 school with 158 students. Because there are no other schools to compare it against in North Lakeland School District, parents should read the district numbers as this school's numbers.
The school has a strong recent record but a noticeable recent dip. It ranked 42nd of 1,061 schools (96th percentile, 5 stars) in 2023–2024 and 51st of 1,044 (95th percentile, 5 stars) in 2024–2025, then fell to 230th of 1,039 (78th percentile, 4 stars) in 2025–2026. Its district rank is 53rd of 432 (88th percentile, 4 stars). Even in the lower-ranked year, proficiency averages beat the state in every subject: English language arts 73.96% vs. 54.04%, math 64.35% vs. 53.73%, social studies 78.71% vs. 65.07%, and science 71.01% vs. 52.66%. Chronic absenteeism is 8.5% versus Wisconsin's 17.3%, and the dropout rate is 0.0% versus 1.1% statewide. Per-student spending is $25,440, and the student-teacher ratio is 9.2.
The clearest concern is mathematics, where the school average dropped from 75.69% in 2024–2025 to 64.35% in 2025–2026 while the state held nearly flat. The single weakest result is 4th grade math at 41.18%, below the state's 52.87% and the only reported 2025–2026 grade-subject score under the state average. Top results that year included 6th grade ELA at 84.21% and 8th grade social studies at 80.95%. With only 158 students across PK–8, grade-level percentages rest on small groups of students, so one-year swings can be misleading. Overall, this is a well-resourced, low-absenteeism school that continues to outperform the state; the math trend, and 4th grade math in particular, is the area worth watching.
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