Best High Schools in Zip Code 54153

ZIP code 54153 in Oconto, Wisconsin contains two high schools — Oconto High (grades 9–12, 299 students) and Northeast Wisconsin Learning Academy (grades 5–12, 13 students) — both part of the Oconto Unified School District and sharing the same address at 1717 Superior Ave. Together they serve 312 high schoolers, though Oconto High accounts for about 96% of that enrollment, making the Academy a small nontraditional or alternative program.

Oconto High has the stronger overall profile. Its graduation rate is 100.0% for 2024–2025, above the district's 97.0% and the state's 92.0%, with a 0.3% dropout rate and 16.4% chronic absenteeism — better than the state's 17.3%. It earned 3 stars at the 59th percentile in 2025–2026, a rebound from 2 stars and the 37th percentile the prior year. In testing, it beats the district in every reported subject and year, and its Social Studies score of 58.43% proficient in 2025–2026 tops the state's 48.25%. Math and Science remain below state averages, and English Language Arts slipped from 50.00% to 47.17%, just under the state.

Northeast Wisconsin Learning Academy presents a very different picture. Its chronic absenteeism is 72.7% — roughly 4.4 times Oconto High's rate — and its 66.6% graduation rate and 8.3% dropout rate lag well behind both Oconto High and the state. About 76.92% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, nearly double Oconto High's 41.47%. Per-student spending is lower ($11,505 versus $16,676) even though its student-teacher ratio is smaller (11.4 versus 13.0). No test-score data appears in this extract for the Academy, so its proficiency cannot be assessed here — a gap in the data, not a zero. Because the school is so small, its rates can shift with just one or two students, but the attendance and completion patterns remain worth watching.