Enrollment
308
Elementary
DISTRICT 370 · STATE 323
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 550960001162
Fifty-Third Street Elementary
3618 N 53rd St, Milwaukee, WI 53216 · (414) 874-5300 · Milwaukee County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL308 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of Wisconsin public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
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
16.2:1
19 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.8:1 · STATE 14.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
89%
275 students
DISTRICT 84% · STATE 42%
Community
0
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 | 19 | 6% |
| Kindergarten | 27 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 39 | 13% |
| Grade 2 | 25 | 8% |
| Grade 3 | 35 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 35 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 32 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 31 | 10% |
| Grade 7 | 28 | 9% |
| Grade 8 | 37 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (27) is 27% smaller than its 8th grade class (37).
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
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
Forward Exam 2024-25 . % Meeting or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
7.8%
WI avg 53.1% . -1.7pp since 2023
Math
5.0%
WI avg 54.8% . -1.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 8 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 5 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 7.8% | 5.0% |
| 2023-24 | 9.5% | 6.5% |
% 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
9.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
22.9%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 10% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 23% 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 Fifty-Third Street Elementary
Fifty-Third Street Elementary's state test result (9.7% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fifty-Third Street Elementary this school | 308 | 89.3% | 9.7% |
| Lancaster Elementary Milwaukee | 316 | 90.5% | 7.2% |
| Cass Street Elementary Milwaukee | 312 | 92.6% | 12.7% |
| King Jr Elementary Milwaukee | 277 | 92.1% | 9.7% |
| Browning Elementary Milwaukee | 279 | 90.7% | 8.9% |
| Pratt Elementary Milwaukee | 288 | 88.9% | 13.7% |
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 Fifty-Third Street Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Milwaukee County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 9.7% | #963 of 982 | #155 of 171 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 5.0% | #987 of 992 ▼ 11 | #169 of 174 ▼ 10 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 7.8% | #974 of 992 ▼ 5 | #159 of 174 ▼ 7 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 308 | #597 of 1,157 | #106 of 180 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.2:1 | #780 of 901 | #91 of 158 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 27.2% | #626 of 901 | #118 of 158 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 89.3% | #66 of 1,064 | #59 of 174 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -23.0% | #163 of 664 | #37 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
308
-50 (-14%) vs 2020
-22% since 1990-91, when it was 394
Student : Teacher
16.2:1
was 17.1:1
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 | 308 | 19 | 16.2:1 | 89% (275) |
| 2023-24 | 330 | 22.3 | 14.8:1 | 93% (306) |
| 2022-23 | 312 | 22.7 | 13.8:1 | 90% (282) |
| 2020-21 | 358 | 21 | 17.1:1 | 95% (341) |
| 2017-18 | 400 | 18.6 | 21.5:1 | 94% (377) |
| 2015-16 | 393 | 20 | 19.6:1 | 79% (312) |
| 2010-11 | 426 | 26 | 16.4:1 | 86% (367) |
| 2000-01 | 341 | 23 | 14.8:1 | 69% (236) |
| 1990-91 | 394 | 17 | 23.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Fifty-Third Street Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 23% (400 to 308); teachers up 2% (18.6 to 19).
About Fifty-Third Street Elementary
Fifty-Third Street Elementary is one of the public schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is a medium-sized elementary school. It covers pre-K through 8, with a total enrollment of 308 students.
Milwaukee School District oversees Fifty-Third Street Elementary and 154 other schools, with 65,835 students in total.
Federal enrollment data show Fifty-Third Street Elementary is 85% Black. After that, the student body is 9% Hispanic and 4% multiracial. Among all residents of Milwaukee County, the Black share is about 26%. The school's diversity index is 27%, meaning two students picked at random have a 27% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Fifty-Third Street Elementary operates with 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 16.2:1. That is higher than the 14.7:1 average for elementary schools in Wisconsin. About 89% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits. Compared with the 64% average for public schools in Milwaukee County, the school's rate is higher.
allk12 grades Fifty-Third Street Elementary an F. The grade compares the school only with Wisconsin public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
The school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 9.7%. For its free or reduced-price lunch share, the predicted value is 22.9%.
Across Milwaukee County, the median household income is $64,435, about 35% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 13% of residents are in poverty. In all, Milwaukee County has 284 public schools and roughly 122,496 students.
The nearest other public school, Carson Academy, is about 0.5 miles away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Ranked by average proficiency, Fifty-Third Street Elementary places 4th out of 9 schools in its immediate area.
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.
Compared with 2020-21, the school had 50 fewer students in 2024-25.
If you have questions about school safety, transportation, and start times at Fifty-Third Street Elementary, you can post them here. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
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
- Carson Academy0.5 mi · 326
- Townsend Street Elementary0.6 mi · 257
- Sherman Elementary0.8 mi · 147
- Milwaukee Environmental Science Academy0.9 mi · 274
- Central City Cyberschool1.0 mi · 343
- Marshall High1.0 mi · 639
Frequently asked questions
About Fifty-Third Street ElementaryHow large is Fifty-Third Street Elementary?
Fifty-Third Street Elementary enrolls approximately 308 students in grades PK-08.
Is Fifty-Third Street Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Fifty-Third Street Elementary is an elementary school covering grades PK-08.
How many teachers does Fifty-Third Street Elementary have?
Fifty-Third Street Elementary employs 19 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.2:1.
What is the student diversity at Fifty-Third Street Elementary?
Student demographics at Fifty-Third Street Elementary are roughly 1% White, 9% Hispanic, 85% Black, 1% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Fifty-Third Street Elementary?
Fifty-Third Street 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.