Summary:
ZIP code 53083, in Wisconsin's Sheboygan County area, is home to two middle schools: Urban Middle, part of the Sheboygan Area School District, serving grades 6–8 with 568 students, and Howards Grove Middle, part of the Howards Grove School District, serving grades 5–8 with 256 students. Because the schools cover different grade spans, grades 6–8 give the fairest comparison.
Howards Grove Middle is the clear standout, ranking 55 of 643 middle schools statewide in 2025–2026 — the 91st percentile, or top 9% — with a 5-star rating. That is a big jump from the 63rd percentile and 3 stars in 2023–2024. It also reports 7.0% chronic absenteeism and a 0.0% dropout rate. Across overlapping grades 6–8, Howards Grove averages about 75.5% proficient on state tests, compared with 45.5% at Urban — roughly a 30-point gap, wider than the roughly 23-point gap a year earlier. Its grade 5 results (87.88% ELA, 92.42% math) are the highest in this dataset, though Urban has no grade 5 to compare against.
Urban Middle has stayed near the 30th percentile with a 1-star rating for three years. Its chronic absenteeism is 23.1%, above the state's 17.3%, and 67.25% of its students qualify for free/reduced lunch versus 14.84% at Howards Grove. Urban spends more per student ($14,144 vs $11,543) with similar class sizes (student-teacher ratios of 13.7 vs 14.1), yet its results lag. One bright spot: 8th grade Social Studies reached 63.44% proficient, close to the state's 64.63% and up sharply from the prior year. Its weakest areas are 6th grade ELA (38.51%) and 6th grade math (35.00%).
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