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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the Atwater Elementary administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
474
Elementary
DISTRICT 503 · STATE 323
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SHOREWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 551380001809
Atwater Elementary
2100 E Capitol Dr, Shorewood, WI 53211 · (414) 963-6962 · Milwaukee County
GRADES PK–06ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL474 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 90% of Wisconsin public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Wisconsin public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.3:1 · STATE 14.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
24%
115 students
DISTRICT 19% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 37 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 52 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 69 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 61 | 13% |
| Grade 3 | 54 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 69 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 68 | 14% |
| Grade 6 | 64 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (52) is 19% smaller than its 6th grade class (64).
Student demographics
56%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 54% · STATE 54% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Atwater Elementary→Shorewood Intermediate
Based on grade levels within Shorewood School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Forward Exam 2024-25 . % Meeting or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
72.2%
WI avg 53.1% . -1.0pp since 2023
Math
72.6%
WI avg 54.8% . -2.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 72 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 73 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Wisconsin schools, those numbers are about 53 and 55. Reading and writing scores are down about 1 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 72.2% | 72.6% |
| 2023-24 | 73.2% | 74.7% |
% Meeting or Advanced, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Forward Exam. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
74.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
62.8%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+11.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 74% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 63% typical for Wisconsin schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Wisconsin's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Atwater Elementary
Atwater Elementary's state test result (74.1% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atwater Elementary this school | 474 | 24.3% | 74.1% |
| MacArthur Elementary Germantown | 486 | 22.0% | 68.5% |
| Maryland Montessori Milwaukee | 470 | 24.9% | 63.5% |
| Traeger Elementary Oshkosh | 423 | 26.7% | 62.4% |
| Riverside Elementary Menomonee Falls | 455 | 17.6% | 64.3% |
| Eagle Point Elementary DeForest | 389 | 24.9% | 62.5% |
Matched among Wisconsin elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Atwater Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Milwaukee County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 74.1% | #121 of 982 | #9 of 171 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 72.6% | #163 of 992 ▼ 24 | #14 of 174 ▼ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 72.2% | #115 of 992 ▼ 16 | #14 of 174 ▼ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 474 | #189 of 1,157 | #41 of 180 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.2:1 | #606 of 901 | #52 of 158 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 55.9% | #254 of 901 | #64 of 158 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 24.3% | #820 of 1,064 | #157 of 174 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.0% | #379 of 664 | #77 of 133 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
474
+36 (+8%) vs 2020
-20% since 1990-91, when it was 589
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
was 11.5:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 474 | 33.4 | 14.2:1 | 24% (115) |
| 2023-24 | 479 | 32.5 | 14.7:1 | 27% (130) |
| 2022-23 | 478 | 29.1 | 16.4:1 | 25% (121) |
| 2020-21 | 438 | 38 | 11.5:1 | 21% (90) |
| 2017-18 | 545 | 36.8 | 14.8:1 | 15% (84) |
| 2015-16 | 519 | 31 | 16.7:1 | 22% (114) |
| 2010-11 | 533 | 32 | 16.7:1 | 22% (116) |
| 2000-01 | 620 | 44 | 14.1:1 | 10% (61) |
| 1990-91 | 589 | 31 | 19.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Atwater Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 13% (545 to 474); teachers down 9% (36.8 to 33.4).
About Atwater Elementary
In Shorewood, Wisconsin, part of Milwaukee County, Atwater Elementary is an elementary school. Enrolled students number 474 students, in pre-K through 6. Enrollment is 47% higher than the average for elementary schools in Wisconsin, which is about 323.
Shorewood School District, which runs Atwater Elementary, has 5 schools and 1,916 students.
White students make up a majority at Atwater Elementary, at 64%. Other students are 14% Black, 8% Hispanic, 7% Asian, and 7% multiracial. That is higher than the 51% White share among all Milwaukee County residents. The school's diversity index is 56%, meaning two students picked at random have a 56% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The teaching staff at Atwater Elementary is 33.4 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the ratio is 14.2:1. That is close to the 14.7:1 average for elementary schools in Wisconsin. The percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch is 24%. That is 40 points below the 64% average for public schools in Milwaukee County.
The allk12 Grade for Atwater Elementary is A. Compared with Wisconsin public elementary schools, the school scored higher than 90% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Atwater Elementary would score about 62.8%. It scores 74.1%, 11.3 points above that figure.
Census estimates describe Milwaukee County this way: the median household income is $64,435, about 35% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 13%. In all, Milwaukee County has 284 public schools and roughly 122,496 students.
The shortest distance from Atwater Elementary to another public school is about 0.3 miles, to Shorewood High. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Of the 6 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Atwater Elementary is 2nd on average proficiency.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is Suburb: Large.
Compared with 2020-21, the school had 36 more students in 2024-25. By 2024-25, the school had 14.2 students per teacher, compared with 11.5 in 2020-21.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss school safety, transportation, and start times at Atwater Elementary. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Milwaukee County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
926,331
Census ACS
Median income
$64,435
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
13%
Below federal line
Schools in county
284
122,496 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Shorewood School District
- Shorewood HighHigh · 589 students
- Lake Bluff ElementaryElementary · 531 students
- Shorewood IntermediateMiddle · 300 students
- New Horizons for LearningHigh · 22 students
Other schools in Shorewood
- Shorewood HighHigh · 589 students
- Lake Bluff ElementaryElementary · 531 students
- Shorewood IntermediateMiddle · 300 students
- New Horizons for LearningHigh · 22 students
Other Atwater Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Atwater Elementary. Atwater Elementary is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- ATWATER ELEMENTARYNORTH PORT, FL · 892 students
Nearby schools
- Shorewood High0.3 mi · 589
- New Horizons for Learning0.3 mi · 22
- Shorewood Intermediate0.3 mi · 300
- Lake Bluff Elementary0.5 mi · 531
- Hartford Avenue Elementary0.9 mi · 256
- Cumberland Elementary1.1 mi · 624
Frequently asked questions
About Atwater ElementaryHow large is Atwater Elementary?
Atwater Elementary enrolls approximately 474 students in grades PK-06.
Is Atwater Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Atwater Elementary is an elementary school covering grades PK-06.
How many students per teacher at Atwater Elementary?
Approximately 14.2:1 students per teacher at Atwater Elementary.
What is the student diversity at Atwater Elementary?
Student demographics at Atwater Elementary are roughly 64% White, 8% Hispanic, 14% Black, 7% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is Atwater Elementary in?
Atwater Elementary is part of Shorewood School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.