La Farge Middle

La Farge Middle is a public middle school in La Farge, Wisconsin, serving 44 students in grades 6-8 and part of the La Farge School District, which is ranked 391 out of 426 school districts in the state.

Despite its small size, La Farge Middle faces significant challenges. The school's student performance on the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's standardized assessment, is significantly below state averages across all grade levels and subject areas. For example, in 2024-2025, only 27.27% of 8th-grade students were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to the state average of 53.97%. The school also has a high percentage of students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, with around 60% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, higher than the nearby Viroqua Middle (36.36%) and Westby Middle (33.33%) schools. Additionally, La Farge Middle has consistently higher chronic absenteeism rates and higher dropout rates in recent years compared to the state average and nearby schools.

While La Farge Middle has a relatively low student-teacher ratio, ranging from 8.7 to 9.4 students per teacher, its per-student spending is higher than the nearby schools, suggesting the district may need to re-evaluate its resource allocation to better address the school's challenges. The school's declining performance, high rates of chronic absenteeism and dropouts, and persistent achievement gaps among student subgroups indicate the need for a comprehensive review and implementation of targeted interventions to improve educational outcomes for the students of La Farge Middle.