Madison Elementary, Manitowoc WI

Original Research by School Decision on Madison Elementary

Madison Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in the Manitowoc School District, a regular public school in a mid-sized Great Lakes port city with a deep manufacturing heritage and a working waterfront that has seen downtown reinvestment in recent years. The school is an elementary-only building, so there is no graduation rate to report; that metric does not apply here.

The student body is diverse in its composition. White students make up roughly half the enrollment, with a substantial Hispanic presence and a smaller Black population. About one in eight students identifies as two or more races. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need. The school is relatively small for an elementary, with enrollment under three hundred students across six grade levels.

On state assessments, Madison Elementary posts a mixed picture that parents will want to examine. In English language arts, more than half of third graders met the proficient bar, but that share dropped to just over two-fifths in fourth and fifth grades. Math proficiency was lower across the board, with roughly one in three students reaching proficiency in each tested grade. Science in fourth grade saw about half of students scoring proficient, while social studies in the same grade came in closer to three-fifths. Compared to other school districts in Manitowoc County, Madison Elementary’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades falls below the midpoint. A parent may want to talk with the school about specific interventions or supports in math and upper-elementary reading, where the numbers are softer.

The school is not a charter or magnet and has no special designation flagged in the available data. The district itself saw the closure of Manitowoc County Comprehensive Charter School in 2023, which had served grades one through eight, reducing the number of public school options for elementary families within the district. No other major parent-relevant changes were identified in recent years.

The city of Manitowoc itself offers a mix of industrial and residential fabric, with a historic downtown along the Manitowoc River that has added restaurants, condominiums, and a riverwalk trail in the past few years. The lakefront Mariners Trail connects to neighboring Two Rivers, and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo serve as civic anchors. Many residents commute by car, though downtown is walkable and Maritime Metro Transit provides bus service across the city and to Two Rivers. Housing values in the school’s immediate zip code are below the state average but have risen in the past year, and the broader economic context shows a stable unemployment rate and a median household income close to the national figure.

Several data points that some families look for were not available in the records provided. There were no civil rights data, no information on chronic absenteeism, no staffing ratios, no special education or English learner counts, and no course access information. The absence of these fields may reflect the nature of the school as a regular elementary within a district, but a parent who wants details on class sizes, support for students with disabilities, or discipline practices would need to ask the school directly. Similarly, no program offerings were listed, so it is not possible to say whether Madison Elementary offers particular enrichment, gifted, or intervention programs.

The overall picture is of a small, mixed-income elementary school in a city with a working-class industrial history that is slowly reinvesting in its core. Academic proficiency is below the county midpoint, particularly in math, and the school serves a student population with high economic need. Families considering Madison Elementary should weigh its small size and neighborhood setting against the academic results and ask about the supports in place for the subjects where proficiency lags.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 36% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 43% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 37% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 40% · ▲ 13 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 39% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 39% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 42% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 55% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolManitowoc School District, 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-income39%Higher-income73%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income42%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income15%Higher-income54%39 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income13%Higher-income67%54 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income38%9 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income42%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income16%Higher-income62%46 pp gap