Flambeau High

Flambeau High is a small rural public high school serving grades 9–12 in Tony, Wisconsin, with 129 students, making it the second-smallest of four high schools in this comparison group. Its 2025–26 results are the headline: 148th of 533 Wisconsin high schools (72nd percentile, 4 stars), up from the 4th percentile in 2020–21 — a 68-percentile-point climb in five years, including a 43-point single-year jump. That 4-star rating sits in visible tension with its own Flambeau School District, which rates 1 star at the 25th percentile.

Compared with nearby schools, Flambeau leads in three of four tested subjects. Tenth-grade English language arts proficiency is 62.86% versus 48.47% statewide, ahead of Bruce High (44.0) and Ladysmith High (44.83). Social studies (52.38%) and science (51.43%) also top the state, while math (40.0%) is the one subject that trails it — and has never exceeded 40% in four years of data. Resources are comparatively rich: an 8.2-to-1 student–teacher ratio, the lowest of the four, and $19,538 per student, second only to Holcombe's $22,815. About 52% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Completion metrics run the other way. Flambeau has the group's lowest graduation rate (88.0%), highest dropout rate (2.3%), and chronic absenteeism of 22.5%, above the state's 17.3%; the prior three years were 95–100%, so this looks like a one-year reversal on a class of roughly 30 seniors. Attendance did improve before test scores rose. Most distinctive is the school's work with low-income students — 54th of 446 statewide (88th percentile, 4 stars), its strongest relative result, achieved while serving a population similar in size to Ladysmith's, which lands in the bottom quartile. The open questions are whether the gains persist beyond one small cohort, why math lags, and why completion and attendance still trail the state.