Horning Middle

Horning Middle School in Waukesha, Wisconsin, serves 534 students in grades 6–8 and is part of the Waukesha School District, where more than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In 2025–2026, it ranked #442 of 643 middle schools statewide (31st percentile, 2 stars), its best showing in a decade but still below the district’s midpoint.

The school faces steep challenges. It has the highest per-pupil spending ($17,201) and the smallest classes (11.1 students per teacher) among nearby schools, yet the lowest proficiency in every subject-grade tested. Its 54.87% free/reduced lunch rate and 22.4% chronic absenteeism rate are the highest in the comparison group. Same-city peers Butler Middle and Les Paul Middle, both about two miles away, post higher proficiency with less poverty and absenteeism. Whitman Middle in the Wauwatosa School District has similar spending and class size but far less poverty and absenteeism, and it ranks 48th percentile — 17 points above Horning.

There are real signs of improvement: five straight years of rising rank percentile, a 0.0% dropout rate for three years, and double-digit proficiency gains in most subjects since 2022–23, with continued gains last year. Eighth-grade science has narrowed its gap to the state, and some student groups rank at or above the statewide middle, though low-income students lag at the 19th percentile. The clearest concerns are eighth-grade ELA and social studies (each about 15 points below state) and attendance, which is the largest outlier versus peers. Suburban ring schools such as Pilgrim Park Middle, North Shore Middle, Wisconsin Hills Middle, Templeton Middle, Asa Clark Middle, and Whitnall Middle rank between the 85th and 98th percentiles with much lower absenteeism, showing how large the gap remains.