Wisconsin School Directory - Public Portal Data Elements

Wisconsin School Directory - About the Public Portal

This page features descriptions of the data fields found in the online School Directory Public portal.

List of Data Elements

Local Education Agency (LEA) Code

A unique identification number assigned to the district or school by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

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Current Status

Shows whether the district or school is currently open or closed.

Value: Description

• Closed: Closed within two (2) years
• Open: Currently open

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School Availability on the Map

Whether a school can be displayed on the School Directory map. A school cannot be displayed on the map in certain cases, such as if map data is unavailable or if it is a virtual school that has no physical address.

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Organization Type

Shows the type of education organization the agency is classified as.

Value: Description

• CCDEB School: School associated with the County Children with Disability Education Board (CCDEB)
• Charter Management Organization (CMO): An educational organization operating charter schools
• Non-District Charter School: Charter school not authorized by a public district
• Private School: Privately-funded school
• Public School: School that is part of the public school system
• Public School District: District that administers public schools
• State Institution School: School operated by a state institution such as the Department of Health Services (DHS)

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Grades Served

Which grades the school or district provides education services for.

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Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA)

The Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) to which the school or school district belongs.

CESA: CESA Website

• CESA 01: http://www.cesa1.k12.wi.us/
• CESA 02: http://www.cesa2.org/
• CESA 03: http://www.cesa3.org/
• CESA 04: http://www.cesa4.org/
• CESA 05: http://www.cesa5.org/
• CESA 06: http://www.cesa6.org/
• CESA 07: http://www.cesa7.org/
• CESA 08: http://www.cesa8.org/
• CESA 09: http://www.cesa9.org/
• CESA 10: http://www.cesa10.k12.wi.us/
• CESA 11: http://www.cesa11.k12.wi.us/
• CESA 12: http://www.cesa12.org/

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Locale

The type of locale where a school or school district is located as defined by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). For more information on locale definitions, refer to the NCES Locale Definitions document.

Locale Classification: Definition

• City - large: Territory inside an Urbanized Area and inside a Principal City with population of 250,000 or more.
• City - midsize: Territory inside an Urbanized Area and inside a Principal City with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.
• City - small: Territory inside an Urbanized Area and inside a Principal City with population less than 100,000.
• Rural - fringe: Census-defined rural territory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an Urbanized Area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to 2.5 miles from an Urban Cluster.
• Rural - distant: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equal to 25 miles from an Urbanized Area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 miles from an Urban Cluster.
• Rural - remote: Census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an Urbanized Area and also more than 10 miles from an Urban Cluster.
• Suburb - large: Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urbanized Area with population of 250,000 or more.
• Suburb - midsize: Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urbanized Area with population less than 250,000 and greater than or equal to 100,000.
• Suburb - small: Territory outside a Principal City and inside an Urbanized Area with population less than 100,000.
• Town - fringe: Territory inside an Urban Cluster that is more than 35 miles from an Urbanized Area.
• Town - distant: Territory inside an Urban Cluster that is more than 10 miles and less than or equal to 35 miles from an Urbanized Area.
• Town - remote: Territory inside an Urban Cluster that is more than 35 miles from an Urbanized Area.

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School Type

The type of school, usually defined by the grade levels the school provides educational services for.

School Types

• Elementary School
• Combined Elementary/Secondary School
• Middle School
• Junior High School
• High School

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District Program

Educational programs the district participates in.

District Program: Description

• Elementary District: District serves students primarily in elementary grades.
• Union High School District: Receives incoming ninth graders from several of the 46 underlying elementary (K-8) districts. Refer to the UHS System page for more information.
• Carl Perkins LEA - Career & Technical Education: Participates in the Carl D. Perkins CTE program. For more information, refer to the Carl Perkins program information page.
• McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act: Provides education for students experiencing homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act. For more information, refer to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) page.

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School Category/Program

School-specific categories or programs, such as whether the school provides special education or vocational education, is a charter or magnet school, or is a virtual school. For more information on school categories, refer to the School Category data element page. For more information on virtual schools, refer the Virtual School Status page. For more information on the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, refer to the International Baccalaureate page.

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County

The Wisconsin county in which the school or district is located. A county provides local, governmental support for the school/district located within it. There are 72 counties in the state of Wisconsin, and each county holds a varying number of locales - towns, villages, cities, etc. For example, Dane County, located in south central Wisconsin is home to almost 60 locales including Wisconsin's capital city of Madison.

You can use 'county' as a filter to locate school types (public or private) and to filter districts. When you click the filter, a pop-up window will display all 72 counties in Wisconsin. Any county/counties you select will be highlighted and marked with a checkmark. Click ‘reset’ to clear all selections. Click ‘close’ when you’re done making selections. Districts from all selected counties will be displayed in alphabetical order. Click on the district name to view details about specific schools in that district.

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Athletic Conference

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory agency for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Serving public and non-public high school and middle school athletes, the WIAA divides the state into areas to help provide fair standards of interscholastic competition throughout the state. There are 49 ‘conferences,’ collections of similar sized schools located within a reasonable distance of each other. Each conference is named (i.e. Badger, Big Eight, Lakeland), and consists of multiple school districts. WIAA organizes the competition of over a dozen girls’ and boys’ sports, and names one district the victor - State Champion - of each sport each school year.

The Athletic Conference filter can be found on the School Districts tab. When you click the filter, a pop-up window will display all 49 conferences in Wisconsin. Any conference(s) you select will be highlighted and marked with a checkmark. Click ‘reset’ to clear all selections. Click ‘close’ when you’re done making selections. Districts from all selected conferences will be displayed in alphabetical order. Click on the district name to view details about the specific schools in that district / WIAA conference.

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