Wittenberg-Birnamwood High

Wittenberg-Birnamwood High is a 9–12 school serving 343 students in Wittenberg, a small rural community in central Wisconsin, and it is the only high school in the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District — and much the largest school in its immediate area.

Its clearest strengths are in getting students through and keeping them in class. The school graduates 95.5% of students, above Wisconsin's 92.0% rate and behind only Marion High (97.1%) and Gresham High (95.8%) locally, with a dropout rate of just 0.2% — its lowest in five years. Chronic absenteeism at 15.4% also beats the state's 17.3%, though it runs 3.7 points above the district's own elementary and middle schools. It does this on the leanest budget in the group: $14,294 per student with a 14.9:1 student-teacher ratio, versus Bowler High, which spends $25,076 per student at 8.0:1 yet posts an 80.7% graduation rate and 34.3% chronic absenteeism.

Test scores are the weaker half of the story. In 2025-26 the school scored below the state on all four measures — 10th-grade ACT English, math and science, plus social studies — ranking 4th of six local schools in English, 3rd in math, 4th in science and 5th in social studies. Social studies has declined two years running, to 33.8%, the school's weakest relative result. Its statewide rank was the 33rd percentile (2 stars) after a one-year climb to the 63rd, a swing echoed by Rosholt High and Gresham; with only 30–90 test-takers per year, single-year moves deserve caution. The brightest academic signal is that students with disabilities rank in the 62nd percentile — above the state median, even though the school overall does not.