Summary:
The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District has exactly two middle schools, both serving grades 5–8: Kromrey Middle in Middleton with 1,230 students and Glacier Creek Middle in Cross Plains with 924, for a combined 2,154 middle-schoolers. Kromrey is about 33% larger. The district is already strong — rank 46 of 432 districts, 89th percentile, 4 stars — yet both of its middle schools earn 5 stars in all three years of available rank history, meaning families here are choosing between two top-decile schools.
Glacier Creek is the higher-ranked academic standout: 40 of 643 (94th percentile) in 2025–2026, 34 of 628 (95th percentile) in 2024–2025, and 37 of 641 (94th percentile) in 2023–2024. In 2025–2026 it led in every subject — ELA 73.87% vs. 71.65%, Math 75.42% vs. 73.05%, 8th-grade Social Studies 87.98% vs. 80.00%, and 8th-grade Science 80.38% vs. 76.51%. It also has the lower free/reduced lunch rate (14.29% vs. 20.65%), the higher per-pupil spending ($17,680 vs. $15,950), and the lower student-teacher ratio (11.4 vs. 12.3). Kromrey ranks 63 of 643 (90th percentile) in 2025–2026 and 2024–2025 and 52 of 641 (92nd percentile) in 2023–2024, and it posts the better attendance profile: chronic absenteeism of 11.4% vs. Glacier Creek's 13.6%, and a 0.1% dropout rate vs. 0.2%.
Both schools far exceed state proficiency. Averaged across all ten reported 2025–2026 tests, Glacier Creek scored 76.55% and Kromrey 73.53%, compared with the district's 74.81% and the state's 54.95%. One caution: grade-level results move around. Glacier Creek's 6th-grade ELA fell from 76.23% to 66.99% and 6th-grade Math from 77.87% to 69.86%, while Kromrey's 5th-grade Math slipped from 75.19% to 67.94%. At the same time, 8th-grade Social Studies and Science improved at both schools.
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