The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in Math. The lowest is 37% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Marshall Middle
Marshall Middle serves only seventh and eighth grade, a short two-year bridge between elementary school and high school in the Marshall School District. The school sits inside the village of Marshall, a small Dane County community about a half-hour east of Madison. Marshall describes itself as a place with small-town character and active development ambitions, centered on a historic downtown along the Maunesha River with a mill pond, parks, and annual community events like the Firemen’s Festival. The village has a “Grow Marshall” initiative and positions itself for residential and commercial growth, though the population has held fairly steady in recent years. The housing market reflects the broader Dane County area, with home values running above the national median and a mortgage cost that may be a stretch for some local earners. Parents considering the school should know that the immediate community offers a compact, park-rich setting but does not have a heavy concentration of named major employers or a robust public transit network; State Highways 19 and 73 are the main connections.
The school itself is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and there is no Title I status designation available in the data. Enrollment is small, and the student body is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Hispanic students and smaller numbers of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. About two out of every five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a signal that the community includes a meaningful number of households with lower incomes. Data on students with Individualized Education Programs and English learner classifications were not reported, so a parent who wants to understand special education or language support services should ask the school directly.
On state testing, Marshall Middle shows a split pattern that depends on grade and subject. Seventh graders posted proficiency rates above the midpoint in both English language arts and math, a solid showing that suggests many students arrive at the school ready for grade-level work. Eighth graders, however, performed well below that mark. In eighth-grade math, proficiency landed below half of students tested, and in eighth-grade English language arts it fell just above two-fifths. Eighth-grade science proficiency was lower still, and social studies proficiency came in around half. The eighth-grade cohort tested smaller than the seventh-grade group, but even accounting for that, the drop-off is sharp. When you take all tested subjects and grades together, Marshall Middle’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among districts in Dane County. A parent should ask the school what accounts for the slide between seventh and eighth grade and whether there are interventions in place for eighth graders who struggle.
Because the school serves only middle school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data was not available. No information was available on discipline, course access, or staffing ratios, so a family looking at those dimensions will need to reach out to the school or the district for specifics. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes, such as boundary adjustments, program launches, or leadership turnover, meaning the district does not appear to be in a period of visible upheaval or rapid reform.
Marshall Middle fits a parent who values a small, community-anchored middle school where the same cohort of students moves together through the two years. The academic picture is uneven: seventh grade is a strength, but eighth grade raises questions that warrant a conversation with the school. The village offers a stable, modestly growing setting with outdoor amenities and a deliberate push for development, but the lack of detailed data on student support programs and school environment means a family should visit and ask pointed questions about how the school addresses the eighth-grade performance gap and what academic and behavioral supports are in place.
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