Almond-Bancroft Middle

Almond-Bancroft Middle is a small public middle school in Almond, WI, serving 77 students in grades 6–8 as part of the Almond-Bancroft School District — by far the smallest school among its nearby peers, where the next smallest, Tri-County Middle, enrolls 134 students.

Attendance stands out as a genuine strength. Chronic absenteeism was 8.1% in 2024-2025, well below Wisconsin's 17.3% and better than most nearby schools, including Waupaca Middle (11.4%) and P J Jacobs Junior High (22.1%); only Amherst Middle was slightly lower at 7.5%. The school also reported 0.0% dropout every year from 2020-2021 through 2024-2025. Class sizes are modest, with a student-teacher ratio of 12.9 and per-student spending of $14,078, mid-range compared with neighbors. Eighth grade Social Studies was the academic bright spot at 65.38% proficiency, just above the state's 64.63%.

Academics overall are the concern. In 2025-2026 the school ranked 531st of 643 Wisconsin middle schools (17th percentile, 1 star), a slight improvement from the 14th percentile the year before but far below its 2021-2022 peak of 62nd percentile and 3 stars. Math is the deepest weakness: all three tested grades fell below the state and below every comparable nearby school, with grade 6 math at 9.52% against a state rate of 53.60%. ELA was also mostly below state. The school's 17th percentile rank is the lowest in its comparison group, which ranges from Parkside School at the 26th percentile up to Amherst Middle at the 72nd. Notably, Tri-County Middle serves more low-income students and spends more per student yet ranked higher, suggesting demographics and funding alone do not explain the gap. With only 77 students, single-year results can swing widely, so the multi-year pattern matters more than any one year.