Summary:
The Richland School District in Wisconsin serves high school students at two schools — Richland Center High (grades 7–12, 512 students) and PARTNER Charter School (grades 8–12, 21 students) — together enrolling 533 students in a small, rural district rated 376th of 432 Wisconsin districts (13th percentile, 1 star).
Richland Center High is the comprehensive option, enrolling about 96% of the two schools' students. Its academics are mostly below state averages: 7th grade math is 27.10 points below the state and 7th grade ELA 19.62 points below, with 8th grade Social Studies the one bright spot at slightly above the state (+0.08 points). Its graduation rate is 90.4%, near the district's 90.0% and below the state's 92.0%. However, chronic absenteeism is 28.5%, well above the district's 23.3% and the state's 17.3%, and its rank has slipped from the 67th percentile with 3 stars in 2023–2024 to the 42nd percentile with 2 stars in 2025–2026. By contrast, PARTNER Charter School posts excellent attendance and retention — 8.3% chronic absenteeism and a 0.0% dropout rate, both better than district and state — but its academics are at the bottom: 530th of 533 high schools (1st percentile, 0 stars) and 0% ACT proficiency in 10th grade ELA, math, and science.
Parents should weigh a few caveats. PARTNER's 21-student enrollment means a single student can swing its percentages dramatically, and its graduation rate is not reported — that is missing data, not a zero. Richland Center High spends about $2,109 more per student ($18,618 vs. $16,509) and has a student-teacher ratio about 1.8 times smaller (11.6 vs. 21.0), while PARTNER serves more students from lower-income households (71.43% vs. 52.93% free/reduced lunch). These differences describe very different school contexts rather than proving what causes any outcome.
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