Summary:
ZIP code 54558 in Saint Germain, Wisconsin, is served by just two schools — Northland Pines Elementary-St Germain and Northland Pines Montessori Learning Center (NPMLC) — both elementary schools serving grades PK–4, both located at the same Highway 70 W address, and both part of the Northland Pines School District. Together they enroll 156 students (87 and 69 respectively), and there are no middle, high, or alternative schools in the ZIP. In effect, families here choose between two teaching models housed on one campus.
The two schools post very different results. NPMLC has ranked in the top 5–6% of all Wisconsin schools for three straight years — 96th, 94th, and 95th percentile with 5 stars each year — and outperformed St Germain on all 12 tested subject-and-grade comparisons across two years, while also beating district and state averages in every one. Its chronic absenteeism is 3.5%, far below the state's 17.3%, and it does this with lower per-student spending ($15,147 vs. $19,408) and a higher student–teacher ratio (15.4 vs. 12.6) than St Germain. St Germain, meanwhile, is the area's biggest mover: it climbed from the 29th percentile (1 star) to the 75th percentile (4 stars) in a single year, with especially strong Science and Social Studies results.
Two caveats matter for parents. First, St Germain serves a notably higher share of students from low-income families (45.98% free/reduced lunch vs. 23.19%), so the two schools are not serving identical populations and comparisons should be made carefully. Second, grade-level cohorts are tiny — roughly 10–16 tested students — so one student can shift a score by 6–10 points. The multi-year trend is a more trustworthy signal than any single result, and both schools currently exceed their district's middling 56th-percentile standing.
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