Badger Elementary

Set in Appleton, Wisconsin, Badger Elementary is a modestly sized elementary campus, one of the schools within Appleton Area School District. It works with 258 students across grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 20% smaller than the state mean of about 323.

Across the 38 schools in Appleton Area School District (14,994 students total), Badger Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Badger Elementary logs that 43% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder breaks down as 20% Hispanic, 11% Black, 10% multiracial, 10% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 86% White, putting the school's mix visibly less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, The school lists 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 9.7:1. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 69% of students at Badger Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Outagamie County runs at roughly 32%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Badger Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 35.1%, the actual is 46.4%, a residual of +11.3 points.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Outagamie County) reports that median household earnings sit near $85,069, roughly 33% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Badger Elementary is one of 73 public schools in Outagamie County (combined enrollment of about 31,330 students).

Renaissance School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.6 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Badger Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Badger Elementary at 4th of 9; the average score across the group is 53.0%.

The school occupies a commuter-belt site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 25%: 345 students in 2018 compared to 258 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 52% to 43% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 11.0:1 in 2018 to 9.7:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.