Summary
Highland Community Middle is a small public middle school in Highland, WI, serving grades 6–8 with 58 students, and it is the only school in the Highland School District. It ranks 471st of 643 Wisconsin middle schools in 2025–2026 (27th percentile, 1 star), and its district ranks 339th of 432 (22nd percentile). The school's rank has declined over several years: it was in the 65th–69th percentile in 2015–2018, rebounded to 62nd in 2021–2022, then slid to 47th, 34th, 28th, and finally 27th. That is a persistent downward trend, not a one-year dip.
Test scores show one clear bright spot: 6th-grade ELA, at 60% proficient, beats the state's 54.95% and is competitive with nearby schools. But 8th grade is the major weak point — Highland trails the state in 8th ELA, math, social studies, and science. In 8th science, 29.41% proficiency is less than half the state's 51.86% and far below every nearby school. Math trails the state in all three grades and has in most recent years. With only 58 students, one student moving in or out can shift a percentage by 5–6 points, so single-year swings deserve caution — but the multi-year decline is meaningful.
Highland's 27th-percentile rank is lower than every nearby middle school, including Boscobel Junior High (65th), Mineral Point Middle (58th), Fennimore Middle (73rd), Dodgeville Middle (44th), Riverdale Junior High (49th), and River Ridge Middle (89th). Notably, Fennimore and River Ridge serve similar or higher poverty rates yet achieve much stronger results, and Fennimore spends about $4,000 less per student. Highland's chronic absenteeism, 9.4%, is below the state's 17.3% but above the district's 5.5% and rising. The most useful questions for parents: 8th-grade transition, math instruction, science curriculum, attendance, and support for male students, whose subgroup rank fell from around the 50th percentile to the 14th.
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