Maple Dale School

Maple Dale School is a grades 4–8 school of 224 students in Fox Point, Wisconsin, a small North Shore community north of Milwaukee, and it serves as the tested campus of the Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District (ranked 15th of 432 districts statewide). The school itself ranks 35th of 643 Wisconsin middle schools — 95th percentile, 5 stars — and has held a 5-star rating in every ranked year since 2018–19.

Its neighborhood holds one of the densest clusters of high-performing schools in the state. Bayside Middle, one mile away, ranks 4th statewide and outperforms Maple Dale in every tested grade and subject, typically by 5–15 points. Whitefish Bay Middle (5th) also edges it out while spending roughly $8,000 less per student; Maple Dale spends $21,519 per student. Lake Shore Middle ranks 15th. Maple Dale's student–teacher ratio of 9.8 is the lowest in this group, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 5.4% is less than one-third of Wisconsin's 17.3%, holding in the 2–8% band for five straight years. A few miles away, four Milwaukee middle schools post rates between 55% and 85%.

The long-term trend is strong — from 169th of 609 schools in 2015–16 to 22nd of 628 in 2024–25 — and the 2025–26 dip to 35th is small and still within 5-star territory. Subgroup results stand out: special education students rank 7th of 439 statewide (98th percentile), and low-income students have ranked 90th–96th percentile in recent years. Two caveats: a 6.1% dropout figure in 2023–24 (and 0.0% the following year) reflects one or two students at this size, not a trend; and the free/reduced-lunch rate fell to 1.34%, likely reflecting a reporting change. Science and social studies show the thinnest margins over state averages, though still comfortably above them.