Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary

Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary is an elementary-level community of medium-sized scale in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, part of Milwaukee School District, hosting 384 students in grades pre-K through 8.

Within Milwaukee School District, which oversees 155 schools and 65,835 students, Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary shows that 82% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority; the rest comes out to 6% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 5% 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, The school currently runs with 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.0:1. The state averages around 14.7:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 92% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is above Milwaukee County's rate of about 64%.

After controlling for student poverty, Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 21.1%, the actual is 9.1%, a residual of -12.0 points.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Milwaukee County put the typical household earns roughly $64,435 per year, about 35% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 13%. In all, Milwaukee County runs 284 public schools (combined enrollment of about 122,496 students), of which Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary is one.

Morse Mid is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary ranks 8th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 18.9%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Milwaukee Sign Language Elementary's enrollment has ticked down 31% since 2018, when it stood at 558 (now 384). The Black share of enrollment edged up from 75% to 82% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.4:1 in 2018 to 16.0:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.