Summary:
Bowler School District is a small Wisconsin district with just two schools — Bowler Elementary (PK–6, 156 students) and Bowler High (7–12, 138 students) — for a combined enrollment of 294. By state rankings, the district places near the bottom: 408 of 432 districts, in the 6th percentile, with 0 stars, while both schools earn 1 star and rank in roughly the bottom 13% of their 2025–2026 lists.
The clearest difference between the two schools is attendance. Chronic absenteeism at Bowler Elementary was 16.5% in 2024–2025, better than the district's 24.4% and slightly better than the state's 17.3%. At Bowler High, it was 34.3% — about double the state rate. The high school also posts a graduation rate of 80.7%, below the state's 92.0%. Both schools serve high-poverty populations (free/reduced lunch of 77.56% and 72.46%) and spend well above typical levels per student ($22,830 and $25,076), and the high school has the smaller student-teacher ratio at 8.0 — yet outcomes still lag.
Academically, results are mostly below state averages, with a few exceptions. Bowler Elementary's 6th grade ELA hit 61.11% proficient in 2024–2025 (state: 53.66%), and Bowler High's 2025–2026 7th grade was above state in both ELA (77.78%) and math (61.11%). But elementary math and ELA remain far below state across grades, and high school ACT math and science proficiency were only 7.41% and 11.11% in 2025–2026. With cohorts this small, year-to-year swings are large, so families should look at multi-year patterns rather than single results.
Thank you for your feedback!