Story Elementary

Story Elementary is a PK–8 neighborhood school serving 365 students at 3815 W Kilbourn Ave on Milwaukee's west side, part of the Milwaukee School District. The school ranked 1,020th of 1,039 Wisconsin schools in 2025–26 — the 2nd percentile, with 0 stars — and 95.6% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–25. Across ten years of available rank history, Story has never exceeded the 7th percentile and has earned 0 stars every single year, with no sign of an upward turn.

Academically, results trail both the district and the state. On 2025–26 Forward Exam results, Story was below the district — itself ranked 418th of 432 in Wisconsin — in every grade and subject except 8th-grade math. Third- and 4th-grade math proficiency were exactly 0%, meaning no tested student in those grades met the proficiency bar; exact zeros also appear in individual grades in earlier years, so this is a recurring pattern rather than a one-year blip. Among nearby schools, Story sits near the bottom of the group: Bethune Academy, just 0.68 miles away, posts roughly double Story's proficiency with a nearly identical poverty rate, while Milwaukee Academy of Chinese Language and Metcalfe Elementary are statistically comparable and only Starms Discovery ranks lower.

There are genuine operational bright spots. Chronic absenteeism dropped from 60.3% to 42.5% over three years — better than the district average of 46.2% and better than several nearby schools — and the dropout rate of 0.9% is near the state level and far below the district's. Per-pupil spending rose 55% to $20,489 while the student–teacher ratio fell from 22.9 to 16.4. So far, however, that investment has not shown up in learning: the state percentile slipped to 2, and subgroup rankings for African American students and English Language Learners fell to the 5th percentile in 2025–26 after two years of modest improvement.