Fifty-Third Street Elementary

As a medium-sized K-5 school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fifty-Third Street Elementary works with 308 students from grades pre-K through 8, part of Milwaukee School District.

Fifty-Third Street Elementary is one of 155 schools operated by Milwaukee School District, a district that caters to 65,835 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Fifty-Third Street Elementary records that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (85%). Beyond that, the school records 9% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Milwaukee County as a whole is about 26% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 16.2:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 14.7:1, putting Fifty-Third Street Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 89% of students at Fifty-Third Street Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Milwaukee County's rate of about 64%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Fifty-Third Street Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 22.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 9.7%.

Across the wider county, Milwaukee County reports that median household earnings sit near $64,435, about 35% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 13%. Across Milwaukee County's 284 public schools (combined enrollment of about 122,496 students), Fifty-Third Street Elementary is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Carson Academy, roughly 0.5 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Fifty-Third Street Elementary comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 9.3%.

Fifty-Third Street Elementary operates from a downtown location.

Over the past 7-year window. Fifty-Third Street Elementary's enrollment has edged down 23% since 2018, when it stood at 400 (now 308). Over the same period, the Hispanic share rose from 5% to 9%. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 21.5:1 in 2018 to 16.2:1 today.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.