Summary
Congress Elementary is a public elementary school serving grades PK-8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, part of the Milwaukee School District, which is ranked 415 out of 426 districts in the state and has a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger. Congress Elementary has consistently ranked in the bottom 10% of Wisconsin elementary schools over the past decade, with a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger.
Congress Elementary significantly underperforms the Milwaukee School District and the state of Wisconsin in academic proficiency across all grade levels and subject areas. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 11.36% of 3rd graders at Congress Elementary were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to 21.92% in the Milwaukee School District and 52.14% statewide. The school also has extremely high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 17.7% to 57.3% over the past few years, and high dropout rates, ranging from 1.3% to 5.6% in recent years. Congress Elementary struggles to serve its student subgroups effectively, ranking in the bottom 25% of Wisconsin elementary schools for its performance with female students, male students, African American students, special education students, and low socioeconomic status students.
The nearby schools in the Milwaukee School District, such as Carson Academy, Hampton Elementary, and Fifty-Third Street Elementary, also perform poorly and have similar challenges to Congress Elementary, suggesting that the issues facing Congress Elementary are systemic within the district. Congress Elementary has a relatively high student-teacher ratio and high spending per student, but these factors do not seem to translate into better outcomes, indicating that a more comprehensive, long-term strategy is needed to address the systemic issues within the Milwaukee School District.
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