Summary:
Independence School District in Wisconsin has just one middle school, Independence Middle, which serves grades 6–8 and enrolls 101 students in Independence, WI. The district is ranked 375 of 432 districts in Wisconsin, placing it in the 13th percentile with 1 star.
Academically, Independence Middle showed a sharp reversal. In 2024–2025, it scored above the state in several areas, including 8th-grade ELA, 8th-grade math, 8th-grade social studies, and 8th-grade science. In 2025–2026, every reported subject/grade score was below the state average. The school’s simple average across eight reported tests fell from 54.16 to 48.65, while the state average rose from 54.42 to 55.51; the average gap to the state widened from -0.26 points to -6.86 points. Largest drops were ELA 8th grade (-15.62), Social Studies 8th grade (-13.45), Science 8th grade (-10.80), and Math 8th grade (-7.58). Some areas improved: ELA 7th grade (+2.74), Math 6th grade (+3.60), and Math 7th grade (+1.90). The school’s rank slipped from 306 of 641 in 2023–2024, to 321 of 628 in 2024–2025, to 416 of 643 in 2025–2026 (35th percentile, 2 stars).
Attendance and dropout metrics are clear strengths. Chronic absenteeism is 8.0% at the school, compared with 16.8% in the district and 17.3% statewide. The dropout rate is 0.0%, compared with 0.4% in the district and 1.1% statewide. Other context: free/reduced lunch is 60.4%, per-student spending is $17,609, and the student-teacher ratio is 12.6:1. Because the school is small—101 students in grades 6–8—individual grade cohorts are small, so percentages can swing noticeably from one year to the next. The 2025–2026 academic decline should be watched over multiple years before concluding it is a sustained trend. The prior year shows the school can perform above state in several areas, so the key question is whether 2025–2026 is a one-year dip or the start of a longer decline.
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