Gillett Middle

Gillett Middle is a small rural school at 208 W Main St in Gillett, Wisconsin (Oconto County), serving roughly 120 students in grades 6–8 — the smallest enrollment among its nearby comparison schools. In 2025–26 it ranked 371st of 643 Wisconsin middle schools (42nd percentile, 2 stars), which places it noticeably higher than its own Gillett School District, a district ranked near the bottom of the state at 366th of 432.

The headline story is a sharp slide. For most of the past decade Gillett Middle was a top-decile school, earning 4–5 stars and sitting in the 82nd–88th percentile as recently as 2021–22 and 2022–23. In three years it has fallen about 45 percentile points to the middle of the pack. On the positive side, attendance is extraordinary: chronic absenteeism dropped from 23.7% in 2021–22 to 0.8% in 2024–25, far below Wisconsin's 17.3% and below every neighbor, including 7.4% at Oconto Falls Middle School and 21.8% at Shawano Community Middle. The school also serves the highest-poverty population in its peer group, with 59.2% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, while still producing roughly state-average reading results.

Achievement splits clearly by subject. Reading is solid — averaged across grades, English language arts sits essentially at the state line — while math runs about 6.6 points below state. Gillett's 2025–26 8th graders posted the highest ELA proficiency of the nearby schools (59.6%) but the lowest math (42.6%) and science (42.6%), compared with 68.2% math and 75.0% science at Coleman Middle. Special education students and low-income students rank at or above the school's overall standing each year, while female students have stayed below the 31st percentile three years running. Hispanic students ranked 231st of 236 schools in 2025–26 — a single year of data for a small subgroup.