The REAL School

The REAL School is a public school in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, serving 538 students in grades 6–12 as part of the Racine Unified School District — one of only two combined middle-and-high schools in its local comparison group, alongside Walden III High, while the district's other high schools (Case High, Horlick High, and Park High) serve grades 9–12 with 1,200–1,850 students each.

For parents, the strongest news is completion: the graduation rate is 98.3%, up from 93.6% five years earlier and essentially tied with Union Grove High (98.3%) for best in the group. That's about 6 points above the state (92.0%) and 13 points above the district (85.3%). The dropout rate is 0.0%, compared with 3.7% at Horlick, 2.5% at Park, and 1.7% at Case. Chronic absenteeism, at 28.3%, is far below the district's 36.5% and below every RUSD comprehensive high school, but still above the state (17.3%), Walden III (20.8%), and Union Grove (7.2%). Among 10th graders, ACT Math proficiency (39.13%) is the highest of any Racine Unified high school here, just under the state's 42.93%, and 10th-grade social studies (52.38%) beats the state (48.25%). Students with disabilities are a standout: that subgroup ranks 10th of 333 schools statewide.

Gaps remain in middle school: reading proficiency across grades 6–8 (roughly 37–42%) trails the state by double digits, 8th-grade science is 38.0% versus 51.9% statewide, and 8th-grade math (20.51%) sits at district level and about 33 points below the state. The student–teacher ratio also jumped from 12.3 to 15.9 in one year, even as per-student spending reached $15,008. The school's statewide rank has swung widely, peaking at the 60th percentile in 2016–17, dropping to the 10th–11th percentile in 2022–2024, and returning to 32nd percentile (2 stars) now. Note that Racine County Jail, the DOC: Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility, and Hillcrest School are specialized settings rather than like-for-like peers.