Goodrich Elementary

Goodrich Elementary is a PK–5 school serving 312 students at 8251 N Celina St on Milwaukee's far northwest side, part of Milwaukee School District, where 92.6% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–25 — higher than the MPS peer average and roughly seven times the rate at the nearest suburban school.

For most of the past decade, Goodrich sat in the bottom tenth of Wisconsin schools. The 2025–26 year is the best in that stretch: the school ranked at the 11th percentile — its highest in ten years — and earned its first star rating of the decade. Chronic absenteeism fell to 22.3% in 2024–25, less than half the district's 46.2% and only about five points above the state's 17.3%; three years earlier it was 59.4%, worse than the district. Class size is also the smallest in the nearby MPS group at 15.0 students per teacher, and every one of the eight measured grade-and-subject results improved over the prior year, including 4th grade math, which rose from 20.7% to 31.4%.

Nearby comparisons are revealing. Brown Deer Elementary, 2.7 miles away, has nearly identical chronic absenteeism (22.3%) yet far higher proficiency and spends about $6,900 less per student; Benjamin Franklin Elementary and Early Learning Center in Menomonee Falls School District serves a much lower-poverty community. Among the nearby MPS campuses it is compared with — including Thoreau Elementary, Barton Elementary and Maple Tree Elementary — Goodrich now ranks second. It spends $21,966 per student but still trails the state (4th grade ELA 31.4% vs. 53.9% statewide), and its clearest soft spot is special education, ranked in the bottom tenth of the state three years running. By the state's own subgroup comparison, the school's African American students ranked at the 60th percentile with 3 stars in 2025–26. Overall, Goodrich remains low-ranked in absolute terms, but it is improving faster than almost any school around it.