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Welcome to the Milwaukee School of Languages community. What's one thing that would make Milwaukee School of Languages even better?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
964
High
DISTRICT 539 · STATE 475
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 550960001273
Milwaukee School of Languages
8400 W Burleigh St, Milwaukee, WI 53222 · (414) 393-5700 · Milwaukee County
GRADES 06–12HIGH11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL964 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 6% of Wisconsin public high schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
60 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.9:1 · STATE 14.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
54%
520 students
DISTRICT 84% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 162 | 17% |
| Grade 7 | 146 | 15% |
| Grade 8 | 157 | 16% |
| Grade 9 | 141 | 15% |
| Grade 10 | 110 | 11% |
| Grade 11 | 111 | 12% |
| Grade 12 | 137 | 14% |
Student demographics
68%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
32.8%
WI avg 53.1% . -2.6pp since 2023
Math
19.2%
WI avg 54.8% . +2.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 33 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 19 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 3 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 32.8% | 19.2% |
| 2023-24 | 35.4% | 17.1% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of WI schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
29.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
44.5%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 30% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 45% typical for Wisconsin schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Milwaukee School of Languages
Milwaukee School of Languages's state test result (29.6% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee School of Languages this school | 964 | 53.9% | 29.6% |
| Case High Racine | 1,856 | 51.6% | 24.6% |
| LaFollette High Madison | 1,541 | 58.3% | 22.1% |
| East High Madison | 1,643 | 57.9% | 25.7% |
| Horlick High Racine | 1,212 | 66.8% | 13.8% |
| Memorial High Beloit | 1,305 | 61.9% | 17.9% |
Matched among Wisconsin high 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 Milwaukee School of Languages ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Milwaukee County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 29.6% | #353 of 402 | #14 of 40 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 19.2% | #57 of 64 ▲ 2 | N/A |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 32.8% | #54 of 64 ▼ 5 | N/A |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 964 | #96 of 532 | #15 of 59 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.1:1 | #262 of 325 | #21 of 40 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 67.8% | #17 of 325 | #4 of 40 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 53.9% | #71 of 418 | #34 of 47 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.9% | #46 of 203 | #11 of 26 |
Ranked against other public high 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
964
-139 (-13%) vs 2020
+18% since 1990-91, when it was 817
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
was 17.8:1
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 | 964 | 59.7 | 16.1:1 | 54% (520) |
| 2023-24 | 951 | 58.8 | 16.2:1 | 61% (578) |
| 2022-23 | 985 | 68.1 | 14.5:1 | 58% (574) |
| 2020-21 | 1,103 | 62 | 17.8:1 | 62% (687) |
| 2017-18 | 1,174 | 62.3 | 18.9:1 | 43% (507) |
| 2015-16 | 1,202 | 62 | 19.4:1 | 55% (666) |
| 2010-11 | 1,094 | 67 | 16.3:1 | 50% (552) |
| 2000-01 | 948 | 55 | 17.2:1 | 69% (654) |
| 1990-91 | 817 | 57 | 14.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Milwaukee School of Languages.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (1,174 to 964); teachers down 4% (62.3 to 59.7).
About Milwaukee School of Languages
Milwaukee School of Languages is a large high school that serves part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It offers grades 6 through 12 and has 964 students enrolled. By comparison, high schools in Wisconsin enroll about 475 students on average.
Milwaukee School of Languages reports to Milwaukee School District, which has 155 schools and 65,835 students.
No group is above 50% at Milwaukee School of Languages; the largest is Black, at 47%. Other reported shares: 24% Hispanic, 19% White, 6% multiracial, and 3% Asian. Milwaukee County's residents are about 26% Black, 21 points below the school's share. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Milwaukee School of Languages scores 68%.
With 59.7 full-time-equivalent teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 16.1:1. Statewide, high schools in Wisconsin average 14.6:1. Roughly 54% of students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Milwaukee County average 64%.
Milwaukee School of Languages earns a D on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 6% of Wisconsin public high schools.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Milwaukee School of Languages would score about 44.5%. It scores 29.6%, a bottom-10% result among Wisconsin schools on BeatsExpectations.
Looking at the county, Milwaukee County, median household income comes to about $64,435, roughly 35% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 13% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting Milwaukee School of Languages, Milwaukee County has 284 public schools.
Milwaukee School of Languages's closest public school neighbor is Eighty-First Street Elementary, about 0.4 miles away. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Its average proficiency rate of 29.6% is below the 44.2% average for nearby schools.
Milwaukee School of Languages has an NCES locale of City: Large.
By 2024-25, enrollment had dropped to 964, from 1,103 in 2020-21. The school's ratio dropped from 17.8:1 to 16.1:1 between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
The discussion board for Milwaukee School of Languages is open to topics like pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
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
- Eighty-First Street Elementary0.4 mi · 357
- Milwaukee German Immersion0.7 mi · 549
- Ninety-Fifth Street Elementary0.8 mi · 428
- McKinley Elementary1.0 mi · 388
- Roosevelt Elementary1.1 mi · 396
- Longfellow Middle1.1 mi · 782
Frequently asked questions
About Milwaukee School of LanguagesWhat is the total enrollment at Milwaukee School of Languages?
Milwaukee School of Languages enrolls approximately 964 students in grades 06-12.
What grades does Milwaukee School of Languages serve?
Milwaukee School of Languages serves grades 06-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Milwaukee School of Languages?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Milwaukee School of Languages is approximately 16.1:1 (60 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Milwaukee School of Languages?
Student demographics at Milwaukee School of Languages are roughly 19% White, 24% Hispanic, 47% Black, 3% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Who oversees Milwaukee School of Languages?
Milwaukee School of Languages 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.