Summary:
ZIP code 54981 is served by a single public middle school, Waupaca Middle, located at 1149 Shoemaker Rd in Waupaca and covering grades 5 through 8 with an enrollment of 546 students — roughly 136 per grade. Because there is only one middle school in the area, there are no local peers to compare against; the relevant benchmarks are its own district, Waupaca School District, and the state of Wisconsin. The school reports a 12.7:1 student-teacher ratio, per-student spending of $14,689, and a free/reduced-lunch rate of 43.41%, indicating a moderately high-need population.
The clearest strengths are attendance and mathematics. Chronic absenteeism is 11.4%, well below Wisconsin's 17.3%, and the reported dropout rate is 0.0%, better than both the district (0.4%) and the state (1.1%). Math is the academic bright spot: 7th grade math proficiency of 65.85% is more than 10 points above the state's 55.67%, and the school's overall math average sits about 1.9 points above the state. Fifth grade English Language Arts is also solid at 57.50%, roughly 3.9 points above the state.
The main concerns are a sustained accountability slide and lagging ELA. Over three years the school fell from the 65th percentile (2023-24) to the 58th to the 49th in 2025-26, dropping from 3 stars to 2 stars — now below the district's own 58th-percentile standing. Sixth grade ELA, at 45.67%, is 9.28 points under the state, the widest negative gap in the data. Eighth grade social studies (59.68%) trails the state by 4.95 points, and grade 8 math slipped from a double-digit advantage a year earlier to near state parity.
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