Bowler High

Bowler High is a small public school in Bowler, WI, serving 138 students in grades 7–12 as part of the Bowler School District, which ranked 408th of 432 Wisconsin districts in 2025–26. Among nearby schools, only Tigerton High (125 students) is smaller, while Gresham High has 155, Marion High 227, and Shawano High 702. Bowler spends $25,076 per student — the most of any nearby school — and has the lowest student–teacher ratio at 8.0, yet 72.46% of students qualified for free/reduced lunch in 2024–25, up from 55.7% two years earlier. Graduation was 80.7%, the lowest in the peer group and below Wisconsin's 92.0%, and chronic absenteeism hit 34.3%, well above the state's 17.3% and second only to Menominee Nation High School (59.2%) locally.

Test results are mixed. Seventh-grade Forward ELA was 77.78% proficient, above the state's 55.33% and best among nearby schools, and 7th-grade math was 61.11%. But 8th-grade ELA (29.17% vs 54.38%), 8th-grade math (41.67%), 10th-grade social studies (33.33%), and ACT results are below state averages, with ACT math at 7.41% and ACT science at 11.11%. Bowler's rank fell from 30th percentile (2 stars) in 2022–23 to 13th percentile (1 star) in 2025–26, while Marion High and Gresham High reached 3 stars. Native American students ranked at the 37th percentile, above the school overall, while low-income students dropped to the 5th percentile. For parents, the key pressures are attendance, graduation, and upper-grade achievement.