Summary:
ZIP code 53220, in the Milwaukee metro area, is home to two public high schools serving grades 9–12 — Hamilton High in Milwaukee School District and Greenfield High in Greenfield School District — enrolling 1,472 and 1,140 students respectively, for 2,612 students combined.
Greenfield High outperforms Hamilton High on every measure in this data. Its graduation rate is 95.1%, above the state's 92.0%, versus 64.1% at Hamilton — a 31-point gap. Its dropout rate is 0.7% against Hamilton's 4.9% and the state's 1.1%. Chronic absenteeism is 20.2% at Greenfield versus 73.6% at Hamilton, where roughly three in four students are chronically absent, compared with a 17.3% state rate. In 10th-grade proficiency, Greenfield reaches 43.55% in Social Studies, 35.61% in ELA, 26.52% in Math, and 28.41% in Science, while Hamilton posts 13.3%, 11.69%, 3.88%, and 7.86%. Greenfield does this while spending $3,945 less per student ($15,505 vs. $19,450), though it serves a less economically disadvantaged population (46.67% vs. 78.6% free/reduced lunch).
For parents, the key takeaway is that Hamilton trails the state by roughly 35–39 points in every subject, falls below its own district average, and has ranked in the bottom 5% of state high schools for three straight years. Greenfield's trajectory is worth watching too: its state rank slid from 37th percentile (2 stars) in 2023–2024 to 26th percentile (1 star) in 2025–2026, with ELA and Science each dropping 5–8 points year over year. Staffing is comparable (14.7 vs. 14.2 students per teacher), so class size alone does not explain the differences.
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