Wittenberg Elementary

Wittenberg Elementary is a PK–8 school of 449 students in the small central Wisconsin community of Wittenberg (population roughly 1,100), and it is the largest school in the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District. In 2025–2026 it ranked 824th of 1,039 ranked Wisconsin schools — the 21st percentile, with a 1-star rating — its lowest position in the ten years of history available. That continues a slow decade-long slide of about 17 percentile points, down from 38th percentile and 2 stars in 2016–2017.

Comparisons with nearby schools are revealing. Birnamwood Elementary, the district's other PK–8 building 7.4 miles away, ranks 45th percentile (2 stars) while operating with nearly identical resources — $11,882 per student and the same 14.4:1 student-teacher ratio — although it serves a somewhat less low-income population (37.6% vs. 45.7% free/reduced lunch). Tigerton Elementary is the sharper contrast: almost the same poverty rate (47.1%) and higher chronic absenteeism, yet it ranks 58th percentile with 3 stars. Riverside Elementary, at 95th percentile, serves a far more affluent area and is better read as an example of what is possible than as a like-for-like peer.

The school's challenges are concentrated rather than broad. In grades 6–8, Wittenberg matches Birnamwood and performs near state levels in math, science, and social studies; the deficit sits almost entirely in grades 3–5, where English language arts averages 22.5% against the state's 53.2%, and third-grade reading is the deepest hole of all. Attendance is the strongest part of the story: chronic absenteeism fell 15.6 points in three years to 10.4%, now better than both the district and the state, and the dropout rate has held at 0.0%. Per-pupil spending has risen to $12,072 while results declined, so neither resources nor demographics fully explain the pattern — which points to instruction in the early grades as the place to look.