1
What's one thing Doerfler Elementary gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
609
Elementary
DISTRICT 370 · STATE 323
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 550960001148
Doerfler Elementary
3014 W Scott St, Milwaukee, WI 53215 · (414) 902-9500 · Milwaukee County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL609 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
18.1:1
34 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.8:1 · STATE 14.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
79%
481 students
DISTRICT 84% · 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 | 64 | 11% |
| Kindergarten | 55 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 64 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 63 | 10% |
| Grade 3 | 47 | 8% |
| Grade 4 | 60 | 10% |
| Grade 5 | 57 | 9% |
| Grade 6 | 59 | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 68 | 11% |
| Grade 8 | 72 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (55) is 24% smaller than its 8th grade class (72).
Student demographics
27%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 66% · 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
Test scores
Forward Exam 2024-25 . % Meeting or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
13.5%
WI avg 53.1% . -4.5pp since 2023
Math
10.8%
WI avg 54.8% . -5.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 14 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 11 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 5 points.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 13.5% | 10.8% |
| 2023-24 | 18.0% | 16.1% |
% 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
16.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
29.2%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 16% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 29% 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 Doerfler Elementary
Doerfler Elementary's state test result (16.0% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doerfler Elementary this school | 609 | 79.0% | 16.0% |
| Arcadia Elementary Arcadia | 531 | 82.7% | 31.6% |
| Greenfield Bilingual Milwaukee | 556 | 85.6% | 22.0% |
| Vieau Elementary Milwaukee | 713 | 69.4% | 21.6% |
| Allen-Field Elementary Milwaukee | 451 | 89.4% | 15.1% |
| La Causa Charter School Milwaukee | 558 | 87.1% | 18.3% |
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 Doerfler Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Milwaukee County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.0% | #920 of 982 | #118 of 171 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 10.8% | #938 of 992 ▼ 22 | #132 of 174 ▼ 21 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 13.5% | #937 of 992 ▼ 18 | #129 of 174 ▼ 14 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 609 | #55 of 1,157 | #13 of 180 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.1:1 | #847 of 901 | #128 of 158 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 27.2% | #625 of 901 | #117 of 158 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 79.0% | #125 of 1,064 | #90 of 174 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -3.2% | #602 of 664 | #123 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
609
+45 (+8%) vs 2020
-11% since 1990-91, when it was 683
Student : Teacher
18.1:1
was 17.6:1
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 | 609 | 33.6 | 18.1:1 | 79% (481) |
| 2023-24 | 550 | 34 | 16.2:1 | 93% (512) |
| 2022-23 | 520 | 36.9 | 14.1:1 | 92% (479) |
| 2020-21 | 564 | 32 | 17.6:1 | 99% (556) |
| 2017-18 | 629 | 32.4 | 19.4:1 | 96% (601) |
| 2015-16 | 756 | 37 | 20.4:1 | 88% (668) |
| 2010-11 | 783 | 49 | 16.0:1 | 93% (732) |
| 2000-01 | 541 | 32 | 16.9:1 | 69% (373) |
| 1990-91 | 683 | 29 | 23.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Doerfler Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 3% (629 to 609); teachers up 4% (32.4 to 33.6).
About Doerfler Elementary
Doerfler Elementary is an elementary school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to federal school records. A federal count lists 609 students at the school, in pre-K through 8. An average school in this group (elementary schools in Wisconsin) has about 323 students.
Milwaukee School District operates 155 schools. Combined enrollment is 65,835 students.
About 85% of the student body at Doerfler Elementary is Hispanic. Smaller groups are 9% Black and 2% White. County-wide, 17% of Milwaukee County residents are Hispanic. Doerfler Elementary's diversity index is 27%, against a US figure of 70%.
Federal data list 33.6 full-time-equivalent teachers at Doerfler Elementary in 2024-25, for a ratio of 18.1:1. That is higher than the 14.7:1 average for elementary schools in Wisconsin. The lunch program counts 79% of students at Doerfler Elementary as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Public schools in Milwaukee County average 64%.
Doerfler Elementary's actual average proficiency rate on state tests (16.0%) and its predicted rate (29.2%) put it outside the top and bottom 10% of Wisconsin schools.
Across Milwaukee County, the median household income is $64,435, roughly 35% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 13% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Milwaukee County is home to 284 public schools and about 122,496 public school students.
Seeds of Health Elementary Program is the closest public school, about 0.3 miles away in a straight line. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Doerfler Elementary. Doerfler Elementary places 6th of 9 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school enrolled 609 students in 2024-25, 45 more than the 564 it had in 2020-21.
To ask about science fairs, picture day, and bus routes, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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 Milwaukee School District
- HAPA-Hmong American Peace Academy K3-12Combined · 1,974 students
- Hamilton HighHigh · 1,472 students
- Reagan College Preparatory HighHigh · 1,372 students
- King InternationalHigh · 1,308 students
- Obama School of Career and Technical EducationCombined · 1,294 students
- Riverside HighHigh · 1,240 students
Other schools in Milwaukee
- HAPA-Hmong American Peace Academy K3-12Combined · 1,974 students
- Milwaukee Academy of ScienceCombined · 1,711 students
- Hamilton HighHigh · 1,472 students
- Reagan College Preparatory HighHigh · 1,372 students
- Bruce GuadalupeElementary · 1,364 students
- King InternationalHigh · 1,308 students
Nearby schools
- Seeds of Health Elementary Program0.3 mi · 380
- Escuela Verde0.5 mi · 121
- ALBA - Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes0.5 mi · 593
- Carmen High School of Science and Technology South Campus0.5 mi · 382
- Longfellow Elementary0.6 mi · 773
- Greenfield Bilingual0.6 mi · 556
Frequently asked questions
About Doerfler ElementaryHow large is Doerfler Elementary?
Doerfler Elementary enrolls approximately 609 students in grades PK-08.
What age range does Doerfler Elementary serve?
Doerfler Elementary serves students from grade PK through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Doerfler Elementary?
Approximately 18.1:1 students per teacher at Doerfler Elementary.
How diverse is Doerfler Elementary?
Doerfler Elementary reports a student body of 2% White, 85% Hispanic, 9% Black, 2% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Who oversees Doerfler Elementary?
Doerfler Elementary is overseen by Milwaukee School District in Milwaukee County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.