Summary:
ZIP code 54615 — Black River Falls, Wisconsin — is served by four public schools in one system, the Black River Falls School District: Black River Falls High (grades 9–12, 500 students), Red Creek Elementary (2–5, 436), Black River Falls Middle (6–8, 327), and Forrest Street Elementary School (PK–1, 289) — about 1,552 students in all. Each grade is taught in only one building, and the district as a whole is rated 404th of 432 Wisconsin districts (6th percentile, 0 stars).
Comparing schools, Red Creek Elementary is the steadiest: the lowest chronic absenteeism in the district (21.2% versus the district's 25.5%), the smallest classes (12.3 students per teacher), and a 4th-grade social studies result (57.55%) that comes closer to the state average than any other local score. Black River Falls Middle has slipped furthest, from the district's top rating two years ago (30th percentile, 2 stars) to its weakest (19th percentile, 1 star); its 2024–25 8th-grade science score (53.13%) edged the state's 50.04%, the only above-state result in this data set, but the next year's 8th graders scored 35.92%. Black River Falls High posts the best graduation rate (92.3%, just above the state's 92.0%) alongside the lowest per-pupil spending ($15,442), the largest classes (15.7:1), and a 2.6% dropout rate — more than double Wisconsin's 1.1%. Forrest Street Elementary School spends the most per student ($17,751) but, serving PK–1, has no state test scores and no recent ranking.
Some patterns affect every family: all four schools exceed the state's chronic absenteeism rate of 17.3%, running from 21.2% to 28.4%. Math gaps are the widest and social studies gaps the narrowest at each level, and absenteeism — unlike test scores — is a district-wide issue rather than one school's problem. With one district and four schools, all comparisons here are within a single system.
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