Colfax School District

Colfax School District is a two-school district in Wisconsin serving 716 students: Colfax Elementary (grades PK–6, 398 students) and Colfax High (grades 7–12, 318 students), which also houses middle-grade students because the district has no standalone middle school and no alternative school.

The district as a whole ranks 239 of 432 Wisconsin districts — 45th percentile, 2 stars, near the middle of the state — but its two schools are moving in opposite directions. Colfax Elementary slid from the 68th percentile in 2023–2024 to 65th and then to 32nd in 2025–2026, dropping from 3 stars to 2. Colfax High moved the other way: 24th percentile, then 13th, then 47th in 2025–2026, rising from the bottom quartile to above the state midpoint.

Colfax Elementary's clearest strength is attendance: chronic absenteeism of 9.6% is well below the district's 13.2% and the state's 17.3%. Its 2025–2026 results, though, show sharp declines in math, science and social studies, especially in grades 3, 4 and 6 — 4th-grade math was 29.79% proficient against a state figure of 52.87%. Colfax High's gains come largely from grades 7–8, where 8th-graders exceeded the state in ELA, math, social studies and science. Its completion metrics are strong — 97.0% graduation and 0.6% dropout versus state rates of 92.0% and 1.1% — though grade-10 ACT math and science remain below state, and its chronic absenteeism of 17.1% is far above the elementary school's. Colfax High also spends more per student, $14,911 versus $13,484, even though the elementary serves more students and has a higher free/reduced-lunch rate.