The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 41% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cottage Grove Elementary
Cottage Grove Elementary serves only first and second grade, so the picture of this school is necessarily partial. State testing data exists for third and fourth graders, but the school does not have those grades. The testing results that are available come from a single year and reflect students who would have moved on from Cottage Grove Elementary to the district's intermediate school. This means the school itself has no direct state test scores of its own, a fact driven entirely by its grade configuration rather than any measure of performance.
The school is part of the Monona Grove School District and sits in the village of Cottage Grove, a rapidly growing community east of Madison. The village population has increased significantly in recent years, and the housing stock is described as newly built. Home values and rents in the area run above the national median, and the community is largely car-oriented with a commute time that points toward a commuter population feeding into the Madison metro economy. The largest employment sectors locally are health care, education, and retail, and an Amazon distribution center anchors a newer commercial development zone near the interstate.
Enrollment at Cottage Grove Elementary is modest for a two-grade building, and the student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial students. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that suggests a generally higher-income community with a notable but not dominant share of families facing economic need. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
Because the school serves only grades one and two, there is no graduation rate, no high school course data, and no chronic absenteeism data to report. The district brief records a recent decision to consolidate Taylor Prairie School, which serves four-year-old kindergarten through kindergarten, with Cottage Grove Elementary into a single site for four-year-old kindergarten through second grade, effective for the 2026-27 school year. That means the school's identity and grade configuration are about to shift permanently. For families looking at this attendance area, the school they send a child to today may not be the same institution in structure or location next year.
The comparison with other districts in Dane County places Cottage Grove Elementary's overall proficiency index in the bottom quartile. That metric draws from testing done in third and fourth grades, grades the school does not serve. The data is available because the school is part of a district where test results are reported at the building level for students who have moved on, but it says nothing about how Cottage Grove Elementary itself teaches reading and math to first and second graders. A parent looking for academic measures specific to this school will not find them in state testing data, because the state does not test those early grades.
What the school offers instead is an environment defined by its grade span. It is an early elementary building with a narrow age range, which can mean a focused developmental approach for very young children. The village's rapid growth and new housing stock suggest a community of families who have moved in recently, and the school likely serves as a neighborhood anchor for a young population. The district's consolidation plan indicates that school leadership sees this building as part of a broader facilities strategy responding to enrollment and cost pressures. Families considering this area should expect the school's role and grade configuration to change in the near term, and anyone looking for standardized test results as a measure of quality will need to look at the district's intermediate and upper schools instead.
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