John Dewey Academy of Learning

John Dewey Academy of Learning is a small public school at 701 Cherry Street in downtown Green Bay, WI, serving 134 students in grades 6–12 as part of the Green Bay Area Public School District. Two things set it apart right away: it is one of the only 6–12 schools in its area — nearly every nearby school is a traditional 9–12 high school — and it is small enough that a typical grade has roughly 15–25 students, which means proficiency percentages can swing widely from one year to the next.

In 2025-26, John Dewey Academy of Learning ranked 366th of 533 Wisconsin high schools (31st percentile, 2 stars) — the highest-ranked school in its district and ahead of Preble High, Southwest High, West High, East High, and Northeast Wisconsin School of Innovation. That marked a jump of 28 percentile points in a single year. It also spends more per student than any school in its comparison group ($21,421 — about 30% above the average of the district's other high schools) and has the lowest student-teacher ratio (10.1). It posts the district's top ACT ELA (46.67) and ACT Math (33.33) scores, though it remains below the state average on all 12 reported assessments.

The biggest concerns are attendance and completion. Chronic absenteeism is 47.5% — nearly three times the state rate — while the graduation rate is 76.4% (district: 86.5%; state: 92.0%). Dropout, by contrast, is 0.0%, the best in the group. Results swing sharply year to year, and performance differs widely by student group. Still, strong years such as a 2022-23 graduation rate of 93.7%, above both district and state, show the school's ceiling is higher than its 1-star district context suggests.