Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 53405

ZIP code 53405 in Racine, Wisconsin contains four public elementary schools — Knapp Elementary, Starbuck International School, Fratt Elementary, and Johnson Elementary — all operating within the Racine Unified School District, which ranks 411th of 432 Wisconsin districts (5th percentile, 0 stars). Together they enroll 2,587 students. Knapp, Fratt, and Johnson serve PK–5, while Starbuck is the only K–8 school and alone accounts for 43.8% of the group's enrollment. Because the district sits in the bottom few percent of the state, every comparison below is relative to a very low baseline.

Knapp is the strongest of the three PK–5 schools, with the group's highest ELA (26.95%) and math (19.16%) averages for grades 3–5, and the only three-year ranking improvement (percentile rising 8 to 9 to 10). It does this despite the highest poverty (85.71% free/reduced lunch) and highest chronic absenteeism (35.6%) in the group. Starbuck is the upper-grade outlier: its 8th grade posts the data set's best ELA (38.79%) and Social Studies (48.17%), both above the district, along with the lowest absenteeism (30.8%) and lowest poverty (62.4%). Fratt has the most resources — highest per-pupil spending ($18,511) and smallest classes (11.9 students per teacher) — yet sits mid-pack on outcomes. Johnson is the most concerning: lowest-ranked (993rd of 1,039), on a declining three-year trend, and below the district in all eight of its 2025-26 measures.

For parents, the headline is that no school here reaches the state average in any subject or grade in either year measured, and math is consistently the weaker area — the group's best 5th-grade math result is 16.67%, and two schools sit under 11%. Encouragingly, every school raised its grades 3-5 ELA average year over year, with Fratt gaining the most (+7.4 points vs. +1.3 statewide). Chronic absenteeism runs roughly double the state rate at all four schools, though each is below the district's 36.5%. Grade-level results swing widely between years in these small cohorts, so single figures should be read with caution.