Summary:
ZIP code 54914 in Appleton, Wisconsin is home to three public high schools serving grades 9–12 — West High (1,024 students), Renaissance School (151), and Appleton Technical Academy (68) — all part of the Appleton Area School District and all sharing the same campus on N Badger Ave. Combined enrollment is 1,243, with West High alone accounting for about 82%. That shared address matters: these are three different programs in one building, not three separate neighborhood schools.
Renaissance School is the standout. It ranked 11th of 533 Wisconsin high schools in 2025-26 (98th percentile, 5 stars) and has never fallen below the 76th percentile across three years. It reports a 100.0% graduation rate and 0.0% dropout rate, and leads all three schools in every subject tested — 90% ELA, 75% Science, 70% Math, and 71.43% Social Studies in 2025-26. Notably, it achieves this with the lowest per-student spending in the group ($8,204) and the highest student-teacher ratio (35.9). West High, by contrast, sits at the 24th percentile statewide with an 88.0% graduation rate, a 2.7% dropout rate, and 33.1% chronic absenteeism — roughly double the state figure — though its test scores improved sharply from 2024-25 to 2025-26 (ELA +17.3 points, Math +10.7, Science +7.6).
Appleton Technical Academy shows a mixed picture: the lowest proficiency of the three (about 27.9% average across four subjects) but strong completion, with a 94.7% graduation rate and 0.0% dropout rate. Chronic absenteeism is high at all three schools (West 33.1%, Renaissance 28.5%, ATA 25.8%), well above the district's 15.7% and the state's 17.3%. Parents should also note that the two smaller schools' test percentages appear to rest on very small numbers of tested students, so year-to-year swings there may reflect cohort size rather than real change.
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