South Milwaukee Middle

South Milwaukee Middle is a public middle school serving 605 students in grades 6-8 in the South Milwaukee School District, located in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The school consistently ranks in the bottom half of Wisconsin middle schools, with a ranking between 461-532 out of 594-641 schools over the past 10 years.

South Milwaukee Middle struggles to serve its diverse student population effectively, with particularly low rankings for African American, Hispanic, and English Language Learner students. The school's performance on the Forward Exam is significantly below the state average across all grade levels and subject areas. For example, in 2024-2025, only 32.83% of 6th graders, 39.23% of 7th graders, and 39.71% of 8th graders were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to the state averages of 53.66%, 53.59%, and 53.97% respectively. The school also has high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 17.7% to 28.5% over the past few years, and relatively high dropout rates, ranging from 0.5% to 1.9%.

When comparing South Milwaukee Middle to nearby schools, it becomes clear that the school is underperforming compared to its peers. For example, Greendale Middle, which is 6.66 miles away, consistently ranks in the top 20% of Wisconsin middle schools and outperforms South Milwaukee Middle across all academic measures. Despite spending more per student ($13,370 in 2020-2021) than the state average, the additional funding does not seem to translate into improved academic outcomes for South Milwaukee Middle.