Five public school districts in Sheboygan County received the lowest overall grades in Niche’s latest county evaluations, with marks ranging from B to B−. A four-way tie at B expands this comparison beyond three districts.
The 2027 evaluations also contain some strong individual marks: two featured districts earned A grades for teachers, and another received an A− for college preparation.
Behind the letters are distinct local stories, including a new middle school, engineering courses offering college credit, and a facilities proposal headed to voters on November 3.
Howards Grove School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Howards Grove received a B overall on its current Niche profile. It is tied with the next three districts, which appear alphabetically rather than in order of performance.
The district serves early childhood through 12th grade, including Howards Grove, Herman and portions of several surrounding towns. Its 2024–25 enrollment was 874 students.
An A for Teachers, With Room to Improve Growth
Niche awarded Howards Grove an A for teachers and B+ for academics, both above its overall letter grade.
Wisconsin’s separate accountability system offers additional context. The district’s 2024–25 state report card gave it 78.3 points and an “Exceeds Expectations” designation.
Academic growth was a less favorable part of that state evaluation. Its English language arts growth score was 60.3 and its mathematics growth score was 64.1, compared with statewide benchmarks of 66 in each subject.
Those are growth measures, not percentages of students reaching proficiency. They identify an area to examine alongside the district’s stronger achievement results.
A New Middle School Is Already Open
Students are now learning in facilities that differ from those reflected in older accounts of the district.
In a superintendent’s update published in the village’s November 2025 newsletter, Howards Grove confirmed that its new middle school opened for the 2025–26 school year.
The district’s description of its facilities work also identifies safety and security improvements at the high school and air-quality improvements at Northview Elementary and the high school.
These projects change the physical setting in which students learn. Their completion is meaningful for families, while any effect on academic outcomes requires separate evidence.
Plymouth Joint School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Plymouth Joint School District also received a B overall from Niche. Serving Plymouth and surrounding communities from preschool through 12th grade, it enrolled 2,000 students in 2024–25.
Its report card illustrates why a single overall letter can conceal considerable variation among categories.
Top Teacher Marks and Substantial College Options
Plymouth earned A grades for teachers and clubs and activities, alongside B grades for academics and college preparation.
The district’s curriculum information describes more than 55 advanced and accelerated courses.
It also lists 106 available college credits across high school course offerings—an indication of the range of opportunities, rather than a promise that an individual student will earn that total.
Work-based options include youth apprenticeships, cooperative experiences and other arrangements connecting school with employment.
That makes the college-preparation B a starting point for a more specific conversation: which courses match a student’s interests, prerequisites and plans after graduation?
From Computer Designs to Finished Products
One distinctive opportunity is the Lakeshore-Plymouth Science & Technology Center.
Students can move projects through the manufacturing process, beginning with computer-aided design, creating three-dimensional models, and producing finished work using equipment such as computer-controlled mills, lathes and routers.
The center also supports welding and automation instruction.
Project Lead the Way engineering students can build physical versions of their designs, while eligible courses offer college-credit opportunities through the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Lakeshore College.
These are concrete educational resources available within the district.
Course availability does not establish how many students complete a credential or continue into a related career, but it does show what Plymouth’s overall B cannot communicate by itself: the tools, instruction and pathways a student may encounter.
Sheboygan Area School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Sheboygan Area School District received a B overall on its Niche profile.
It is by far the largest district in this selection, with 9,285 students in federal 2024–25 enrollment records. Its programs extend from preschool through 12th grade across Sheboygan and neighboring communities.
College Preparation Outpaces the Academic Grade
Niche awarded the district an A− for college preparation and A− for clubs and activities, while academics received B−.
The district’s 2024–25 Wisconsin report card provides a more detailed view of student outcomes.
Among full-academic-year students in tested grades, approximately 43.4% reached the Meeting or Advanced levels in English language arts, and 45.4% did so in mathematics.
Those figures combine the two performance categories shown in the state report; they are separate from Niche’s letter grades.
The same state document reports an 87.3% four-year graduation rate for the class of 2024, compared with 90.9% statewide. That gap identifies a consequential outcome to examine alongside the district’s stronger college-preparation evaluation.
Career Planning Begins Before Senior Year
The district’s academic and career planning information describes students in grades 6–12 using Xello to explore interests and careers and update their plans with staff support.
It also connects planning with regional career pathways and INSPIRE Sheboygan County, bringing local employers into students’ exploration of possible futures.
For a district this large, school-level details matter. North High’s published offerings, for example, include technical education, manufacturing, college-credit courses and several forms of academic support.
The useful question is how those opportunities fit together for an individual student: which courses lead toward a chosen pathway, what support is available when coursework becomes difficult, and whether participation remains accessible within the student’s schedule.
School District of Sheboygan Falls — Overall Niche Grade: B
The School District of Sheboygan Falls received a B overall from Niche, matching the other three districts in this shared-grade group.
The district serves four-year-old kindergarten through 12th grade and enrolled 1,494 students in 2024–25.
Graduation Results Add a Stronger Dimension
Niche awarded Sheboygan Falls an A− for teachers, while academics and college preparation each received a B.
Its 2024–25 Wisconsin report card gave the district 71.0 points, or “Exceeds Expectations.” That is a state accountability designation, separate from Niche’s evaluation.
The state report also shows a 96.8% four-year graduation rate for the class of 2024, above the same-year statewide rate of 90.9%.
Attendance provides another useful finding: the district’s chronic absenteeism rate fell from 13.6% in 2021–22 to 6.7% in 2023–24. Those are annual districtwide rates, measuring students missing more than 10% of school days.
A $65.7 Million Decision Goes to Voters
Families also have an immediate facilities decision to consider. The district’s proposed $65.7 million referendum is scheduled for November 3, 2026.
At the elementary school, the proposal includes renovations for small-group instruction, special education services, the library, cafeteria and kitchen, and before- and after-school programming.
At the high school, plans include larger shop and classroom spaces, science and STEM facilities, career and technical education improvements, and accessibility and infrastructure work.
These remain proposed projects awaiting voter approval. They are relevant to the spaces and services future students could use, but should not be presented as completed improvements or as an explanation for Niche’s current grade.
Random Lake School District — Overall Niche Grade: B−
Random Lake received a B− overall, the lowest letter grade in Niche’s Sheboygan County district listing.
The preschool-through-grade-12 district enrolled 648 students in 2024–25. Its service area crosses county lines: Wisconsin’s official referendum records identify it as serving Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties.
A Lower Overall Mark, With B Grades in Other Areas
Niche gave Random Lake B− grades for academics and college preparation, while teachers and clubs and activities each received a B.
Those distinctions matter because the overall grade should not be read as an identical judgment about every part of the district. Its teacher and extracurricular evaluations sit a step above its overall mark.
The district’s small enrollment also makes the details of particular courses and activities especially useful.
A county comparison can identify the overall grade; it takes closer examination to establish what a student interested in engineering, coding or another subject can actually pursue.
Robotics Connects Classes With Competition
A district report published in May 2025 describes the introduction of Random Lake’s FIRST Tech Challenge team during the 2024–25 school year.
Students in grades 7–12 designed, built and programmed a competition robot. Their work also involved an engineering portfolio, a team presentation to judges and outreach introducing younger students to robotics.
The report describes a seventh- and eighth-grade robotics elective and LEGO League opportunities for younger students, showing how the subject can extend across age groups.
These activities offer a substantive example of learning beyond a conventional assignment: students must coordinate design decisions, solve technical problems and explain their work to others.
The documented program adds context to Random Lake’s report card without establishing that participation improves districtwide test results or guarantees a particular outcome after graduation.
Five Districts, but Every Overall Grade Is in the B Range
The rest of Niche’s county listing received higher marks: Kohler earned A; Cedar Grove-Belgium and Oostburg earned A−; and Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah earned B+.
The selected districts therefore represent the lower end of a generally favorable set of overall evaluations. None received an overall C, D or F.
Under Niche’s 2027 district methodology, overall grades combine academic information with factors including teacher measures, school culture, parent and student feedback, resources and extracurricular opportunities.
They reflect multiple dimensions of school life rather than standardized-test scores alone.
Size also changes the usefulness of a quick comparison. Sheboygan Area enrolls more students than the other four featured districts combined, making its districtwide results a summary of a much broader collection of schools and programs.
For families, the distinction between districtwide outcomes and individual-school experiences is consequential. A shared overall B does not establish that two districts offer the same courses, face the same challenges or produce identical outcomes.
