Best High Schools in Zip Code 53185

ZIP code 53185 is served by one high school — Waterford High — a 4-star school for grades 9–12 with 889 students, located at 611 W Main Street in Waterford, Wisconsin, within the Waterford Union High School School District. Because this is a single-high-school, union high school district, the school and district report identical values in every outcome and test-score metric, so there is no second school to compare against; the analysis instead looks at how Waterford High performs against Wisconsin averages and against its own recent history. The data covers rank history from 2023–2024 through 2025–2026, graduation, dropout and chronic absenteeism for 2024–2025, test proficiency for 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, and context metrics such as free/reduced lunch, per-student spending and student-teacher ratio.

Waterford High stands out for strong student outcomes and a consistently high rating. It earned 4 stars in each year of rank history, and its district ranks 45th of 432 in Wisconsin, the 90th percentile. In 2024–2025, the graduation rate was 96.8% (4.8 points above the state's 92.0%), the dropout rate was 0.3% (versus 1.1% statewide, about 73% lower), and chronic absenteeism was 9.0% (versus 17.3% statewide, roughly half the state rate). Ranking percentile has softened slightly, from 90 in 2023–2024 to 87 in 2024–2025 and 86 in 2025–2026, though the 2025–2026 comparison pool was larger at 533 schools rather than 431. The school still holds 4 stars every year.

Proficiency is above state averages in all four tested subjects in both reported years. In 2025–2026, math proficiency was 58.02% versus 42.93% statewide (+15.09 points) — the largest relative advantage, and the only subject that improved year over year (+0.50 points). ELA was 60.38% (+11.91 points) and Social Studies 59.51% (+11.26 points), each down about 2 points from the prior year, while Science fell 4.22 points to 53.30% but remained 10.10 points above the state. Context metrics show 13.5% free/reduced lunch, $24,066 per student and a 13:1 student-teacher ratio; the state provides no comparison values for these, so they are best read as context.