Stephen Foster Elementary Charter

Set in Appleton, Wisconsin, Stephen Foster Elementary Charter is a tight-knit elementary campus, overseen by Appleton Area School District. It serves 200 students across grades pre-K through 5. By comparison, Wisconsin's public schools average about 323 students each, so Stephen Foster Elementary Charter sits 38% smaller than that benchmark.

Across the 38 schools in Appleton Area School District (14,994 students total), Stephen Foster Elementary Charter accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Stephen Foster Elementary Charter shows that 62% of the student body identifies as White. Beyond that, the school shows 18% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 4% Black. By comparison, Outagamie County as a whole is about 86% White, so the school skews visibly less White than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Stephen Foster Elementary Charter has 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 9.6:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.7:1 average. About 65% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Outagamie County (around 32%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Stephen Foster Elementary Charter performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 38.1%, the actual is 50.0%, a residual of +12.0 points.

Zooming out to the county, Outagamie County reports that median household income runs about $85,069, roughly 33% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Stephen Foster Elementary Charter is one of 73 public schools in Outagamie County (combined enrollment of about 31,330 students).

The closest other public school is Madison Middle, roughly 0.8 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Stephen Foster Elementary Charter comes 3rd of 8 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 50.6%.

The campus sits in an urban setting. Stephen Foster Elementary Charter operates as a public charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but governed independently of the surrounding district's traditional schools.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 38%: 323 students in 2018 compared to 200 in 2025. The Asian share of enrollment fell from 27% to 18% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 12.1:1 in 2018 to 9.6:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.