Drummond Junior High

Drummond Junior High is a small public middle school serving grades 7–8 in Drummond, WI, a far-northern Bayfield County community, with 53 students and no other schools within 20 miles.

It is the middle-school part of the Drummond Area School District. In 2025-26, the school earned 1 star and ranked 457th of 643 Wisconsin middle schools (29th percentile), while the district is 3-star and 52nd percentile. Because this school is the district’s middle school, those are not independent comparisons—they are the same 53 students. With about 26 students per grade, one student shifts results by roughly 3.8 percentage points, so single-year ratings swing easily; the school’s ten-year percentile range runs from 16 to 72. The clearest academic pattern is a 7th/8th split. In 2025-26, 7th grade was at or slightly above state in ELA (56.25% vs. 55.33%) and math (58.82% vs. 55.67%). Eighth grade was below state in all four tested subjects, including ELA (30.77% vs. 54.38%), social studies (46.15% vs. 64.63%), science (42.31% vs. 51.86%), and math (50.00% vs. 53.67%). The current 8th graders were already below grade level in ELA as 7th graders. Math tends to improve from 7th to 8th in every tracked cohort, but 8th-grade reading has been below state four years in a row.

Attendance is a bright spot: chronic absenteeism fell from 26.9% in 2023-24 to 9.4% in 2024-25, about half the state rate and below the district’s 15.4%. Low-income students ranked 52nd percentile while the whole school ranked 29th; male students have been a persistent concern, at 48th, 29th, and 29th percentiles over three years, while female students reached 73rd in 2024-25 before both groups fell to 31st and 29th. The school spends $19,713 per student with a 9:1 student-teacher ratio, and 39.62% qualify for free/reduced lunch. With no nearby schools to compare, families should read the 1-star rating as a noisy single-year signal and focus on persistent 8th-grade ELA weakness and the male-student gap.