Summary:
Turtle Lake Elementary is the only elementary school in the Turtle Lake School District, a small rural district in western Wisconsin serving 215 students in grades PK–5 at 205 Oak St N in Turtle Lake. Because it is the district's sole elementary building, there is no second school to compare it against — but the picture it presents is a mix of real strengths and some recent slippage.
On the positive side, attendance is exceptional: 4.4% of students were chronically absent in 2024-2025, well below the district's 5.9% and roughly a quarter of Wisconsin's 17.3% rate. Fifth grade math is the flagship result at 74.19% proficient against a state mark of 51.81%, and it was also the top subject the year before. Third grade ELA turned around, rising from 37.04% to 59.09%. The student-teacher ratio is a very small 10.1 to 1, supported by $16,384 in per-pupil spending, while 47.44% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The concerns are equally clear: the school's state ranking fell from 57th percentile (3 stars) in 2023-2024 to 38th percentile (2 stars) in 2025-2026, and in 2025-2026 grade 4 was below state in all four tested subjects, with science and social studies both flipping from above state to below state.
For parents, the practical takeaway is that this is a well-attended, well-resourced school with genuine bright spots — particularly grade 5 math and grade 3 reading — but overall results have dipped from modestly above state to modestly below. Because each grade has only about 25–30 students, one child moving proficiency shifts a grade-level percentage by 3–4 points, so a single year's numbers deserve caution. The three-year ranking decline is the harder signal to dismiss, and next year's data will show whether 2025-2026 was a one-year dip.
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