Summary:
ZIP code 54135 covers Keshena, Wisconsin, and contains three schools — two elementary schools serving PK–5 and PK–3 and one high school serving grades 9–12 — all in the Menominee Indian School District, with 788 students combined and no building in the ZIP serving grades 6–8. The district ranks 431st of 432 Wisconsin districts, so this is a district-wide picture rather than the story of one struggling school.
Menominee Nation High School is the clearest bright spot: it graduates 99.1% of its students against a state rate of 92.0%, and its dropout rate of 0.7% is below the state's 1.1% — even while 59.2% of its students are chronically absent. It still ranks in the bottom 3% of Wisconsin high schools. Keshena Primary is the largest school at 394 students and reports 49.1% chronic absenteeism. Kaehkenawapahtaeq, with just 30 students, reports 0% proficiency in 3rd grade ELA and math and a 60:1 student-teacher ratio that is almost certainly a reporting artifact rather than a real classroom condition; it also has the group's lowest absenteeism (36.0%) and free/reduced-lunch rate (70%).
Across all three schools, chronic absenteeism far exceeds the state's 17.3% — 36.0% at the small PK–3 school, 49.1% at Keshena Primary, and 59.2% at the high school — with disengagement climbing as students get older. Test results follow a strikingly consistent pattern: proficiency in most subjects and grades lands roughly 38 to 50 points below the state, and 10th grade ACT results sit at 4–9%. Spending is high, averaging about $24,600 per student, which reflects a small, high-need, geographically isolated district rather than inefficiency. The central tension for parents: nearly every student is kept in school through graduation, but that persistence is not yet showing up as demonstrated academic proficiency.
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