Summary:
ZIP code 54848 is home to a single public elementary school: Ladysmith Elementary, located at 115 E 6th St S in Ladysmith, WI. It serves grades PK–5 with 328 students as part of the Ladysmith School District. Because there is only one elementary school here, there are no local school-to-school comparisons to make; the most useful benchmarks for parents are how the school performs against the state and how it is trending year over year. The school serves a relatively high-need population, with 66.46% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch in 2024–2025.
Academically, results are below the state average in every tested subject and grade, and the school holds a 1-star rating, ranking 791 out of 1,039 schools in 2025–2026 (24th percentile). The clearest concern is 4th-grade Mathematics, where 22.22% of students were proficient versus 52.87% statewide — a gap of 30.65 percentage points. Fifth-grade English Language Arts is also a weak spot at 30.61% proficient against 53.63% statewide. The encouraging news is that the school improved in every subject from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: Social Studies rose 15.75 points and Science 14.61 points, with Science now only 4.81 points below the state. Overall, the school narrowed its gap to the state by roughly 6.30 percentage points, and its rank improved from the 17th to the 24th percentile.
A standout strength is attendance: chronic absenteeism is just 8.9%, well below the district’s 12.2% and the state’s 17.3%. The school also has a low student-teacher ratio of 11.2 and per-student spending of $15,121. Together, low absenteeism, strong staffing, and rising test scores suggest a school on a positive trajectory, even as it works to close remaining achievement gaps.
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