Birchwood High

Birchwood · WI · Birchwood School District · Public


📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 1 AP courses offered — Moderate
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 40% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 41% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 75% (Bottom 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Birchwood High compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • LocallyWI students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+8 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: McKinley Academy, Cassville High, Fond du Lac STEM Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Moderate — some AP / advanced course access

Bottom 40% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
1
Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
6
≈10 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Lab science classes
2
0 physics · 2 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 41% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
47
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
79.7
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

Bottom 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
75%
Range: 50–100%
4-year cohort size
10
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
20.7%
Typical mix. Watch the trend — high turnover can compound.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
36.6%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Mixed-income school

Below Title I eligibility threshold (FRPL < 35%)

30.5%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

25-34% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Below the federal Title I threshold but a meaningful share of the population is income-eligible for free lunch.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

🏛️ Your state's public flagship

University of Wisconsin-Madison

43%
admit rate
$11,603
in-state tuition/yr · $42,103 out-of-state
1360–1510
SAT 25–75 · ACT 28–32

The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $17,354/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full University of Wisconsin-Madison profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
39.0%
Well above the national average (~16%). At this level, chronic absence becomes a leading driver of enrollment loss as families rotate to other schools.
Students absent 15+ days
23
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
219:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
0.3
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
8
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -2.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 59 students:

2025
57
2027
55
2029
52

A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Most similar nearby high schools

The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
McKinley Academy
Manitowoc
Public · charter 219.1 59 -35.9%
Cassville High
Cassville
Public 205.3 58 -17.1%
Fond du Lac STEM Academy
Fond du Lac
Public · charter 200.2 51
Holcombe High
Holcombe
Public 36.5 86 -14.0%
Elmwood High
Elmwood
Public 67.2 90 -2.2%
Drummond High
Drummond
Public 49.2 92 -10.7%
Lake Country Classical Academy Inc
Oconomowoc
Public · charter 230.9 94
Central Sands Community High School
Amherst
Public · charter 134.1 35

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