Shell Lake School District

Shell Lake School District serves about 584 students across three schools — two elementary and one high school — covering grades PK–12 in a small northwestern Wisconsin community, and it ranks 88th of 432 districts in the state, placing it in the 80th percentile with a 4-star rating.

Shell Lake Elementary (3-6) is the district's academic engine: it scored above the state average in all 10 reported assessments in 2025–2026, with an average proficiency of about 72.5% versus roughly 54.7% statewide — a margin of about +17.9 points — and has held 4 stars for three straight years. Shell Lake Junior/Senior High offers excellent completion outcomes, with a 97.9% graduation rate and 0.6% dropout rate versus state figures of 92.0% and 1.1%, plus strong ACT English Language Arts (59.18% vs. 48.47%) and ACT Science (53.06% vs. 43.20%) results; it also houses grades 7–8, which perform well above state averages. Its one weak spot is 10th grade Social Studies at 42.22% vs. the state's 48.25%, the only 2025–2026 assessment below state average and a sharp drop from 64.15% a year earlier. Shell Lake Primary (K-2) has no state test data, but leads the district with the lowest chronic absenteeism (7.2%) and lowest student-teacher ratio (9.4). Parents comparing the three will find attendance is a district-wide strength — every school is below the state's 17.3% chronic absenteeism rate, with the primary at 7.2% and the elementary at 8.4%, while the high school sits at 12.9%. Class sizes are smaller in the elementary grades (ratios of 9.6 and 9.4) than at the high school (13.4), and per-student spending is similar across schools ($15,891 to $16,862). A higher share of elementary students qualify for free or reduced lunch (about 53%) than at the high school (40.67%). The high school's state ranking has been more volatile — moving from the 55th to 81st to 67th percentile — while the elementary school has stayed in the 71st–83rd percentile range.