Pilgrim Park Middle

Pilgrim Park Middle is a grades 6–8 school in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, in suburban Waukesha County, serving 898 students as part of the Elmbrook School District, which ranks 9th of 432 districts statewide. The school has earned a 5-star rating for ten consecutive years, and its 2025–2026 state rank of 14th of 643 schools (98th percentile) is its best in that decade-long window.

On the 2025–2026 state exams, proficiency runs roughly 25 to 31 points above the state average in every core subject — about +31 points in 6th-grade ELA and 7th-grade math, and +27 points in 8th-grade math and ELA. Pilgrim Park leads all ten nearby middle schools in ELA at every grade, math at every grade, and science. The one subject where it looks comparatively ordinary is 8th-grade social studies (84.67%), where same-district Wisconsin Hills Middle (85.98%) and Templeton Middle (85.85%) finish slightly higher. Even there, the school is nearly 20 points above the state.

Chronic absenteeism is 2.6% — the lowest in the comparison group, better than its own district's 3.1%, and roughly one-ninth of Horning Middle's 22.4% and one-seventh of the state's 17.3%. Attendance has improved every year since 2020–2021, and dropouts are effectively zero. Per-student spending is mid-pack at $14,245 — $1,482 less than Wisconsin Hills — yet Pilgrim Park outperforms it. Low-income students rank in the 96th percentile statewide, up from the 73rd two years earlier. Special education students (90th percentile) and English language learners (77th) are the only subgroups outside the 5-star band, and both remain well above average.