Summary:
ZIP code 54130 is home to two public middle schools: River View School (grades 5–8, 1,160 students) in the Kaukauna Area School District, and Freedom Middle (grades 6–8, 339 students) in the Freedom Area School District. River View is more than three times the size of Freedom and is the only one of the pair that includes fifth grade.
Both schools outperform Wisconsin norms in every subject and grade tested, and both hold a four-star state rating. Their strengths differ. River View's edge is mathematics, where grades 5–8 proficiency sits in a tight band of 72.5%–76.0%, roughly 20 points above the state at each grade level, and its 8th grade social studies score (78.47%) is its highest. Freedom posts the biggest movement in the data, rising from 188th of 628 (70th percentile) in 2024-25 to 81st of 643 (87th percentile) in 2025-26, powered by one-year gains in 8th grade ELA (53.77% to 72.00%), 8th grade science and 6th grade math. Head to head, River View leads at grades 6 and 7, while Freedom is clearly stronger in 8th grade ELA and science; 8th grade social studies is a near tie. River View's soft spot is 8th grade ELA (61.46%); Freedom's was 6th grade math in 2024-25.
On climate and resources, both look solid. Chronic absenteeism is 11.0% at River View and 13.4% at Freedom, both well under the 17.3% state rate, and dropout is minimal (0.0% and 0.4%). Freedom spends $907 less per student ($12,633 vs. $13,540) and has a lower student-teacher ratio (13.5 vs. 14.9), though its results rest on a much smaller student body. Momentum favors Freedom; River View has been the steadier performer. Families here have two genuinely high-performing options, and the choice is more about setting and grade-level fit than overall quality.
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