Anderson Elementary School, Madison IN

Original Research by School Decision on Anderson Elementary School

Anderson Elementary School, a regular public school within the Madison Consolidated Schools district, serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. The school is located in Madison, Indiana, a city along the Ohio River that functions as the county seat and an agricultural trading center. Madison’s historic downtown, a National Historic Landmark, features preserved 19th-century architecture, and the broader city includes manufacturing operations producing motor vehicle parts, plastics, hydraulic equipment, and chemicals. The Ohio River riverfront anchors civic life, with the annual Madison Regatta drawing a large number of visitors. Major employers include local manufacturing firms, agricultural markets, and Hanover College, alongside local government. Madison’s population has experienced a slight decline or stagnation in recent years, and development is largely focused on historic preservation and tourism.

The school’s student body is predominantly white, with a very small presence of Hispanic, two or more races, Asian, and Black students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Anderson serves a grade range that ends before the state’s tested grades for science and social studies in older schooling cycles, which explains why the most recent science results come from a smaller tested group and social studies assessment data is older, from a prior assessment and school name. The state testing data that is most current for reading and math shows proficiency rates that are well below the district's county peers, placing the school’s overall academic performance below the midpoint relative to other districts in Jefferson County. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what academic support is in place.

No data was available on chronic absenteeism, staffing, course offerings, discipline, or special education and English learner counts, so those dimensions could not be characterized. No magnet or charter designation applies. The district search for recent changes or strategic priorities did not yield parent-relevant information.

For a family considering Anderson, the core picture is of a small elementary school in a historic, riverfront town with a stable manufacturing and agricultural economy. The peer environment is largely homogeneous. The academic results are a soft spot that would warrant direct conversation with the school about its approach to raising achievement. The housing market in Madison, based on the zip-code level data, shows a home value below the state benchmark but above the national price-to-income ratio, with a moderate year-over-year increase. The city’s population has seen limited growth, and for families looking at the school as part of a broader move, this context of a slowly shrinking or stagnant town is worth weighing against the appeal of a walkable historic downtown and nearby outdoor amenities like Clifty Falls State Park.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-816%

School 16% · District 37% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median

English language arts

Grades 3-819%

School 19% · District 41% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median

Science

Grades 3-818%

School 18% · District 31% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median

Social studies

Grades 3-854%

School 54% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median

This schoolMadison Consolidated Schools, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income12%Higher-income32%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income35%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income78%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income9%Higher-income27%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income30%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income58%Higher-income76%18 pp gap