Winnequah School, Monona WI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Winnequah School

Winnequah School serves students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary school in the Monona Grove School District, located in the Dane County suburb of Monona. The school sits on a residential street near Lake Monona, and its student body of just over six hundred children makes it a mid-sized elementary for the area. The Monona Grove district is a partner of the city, and Winnequah is one of several elementary schools feeding into the district’s middle and high schools.

On state assessments administered through Wisconsin’s Forward exam, a strong majority of Winnequah students scored proficient or above across the tested subjects. In reading and math, proficiency rates were solid across grades three through five, and the school’s overall performance on these measures placed it above the midpoint among all districts in Dane County. Fourth-grade science and social studies results were similarly strong, with most students meeting or exceeding the state’s proficiency benchmarks. Participation rates on all tests were very high, which adds reliability to the results. A parent looking at the grade-level pattern may note a modest decline in proficiency from third to fifth grade in both math and English language arts; while the school’s outcomes remain well within the stronger half of county schools, it is reasonable to ask the school about how it supports students as they move into the upper elementary grades.

The student population is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Hispanic and multiracial students and smaller numbers of Black and Asian students. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that is relatively low compared to many public schools nationally. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the source material, so a family whose child receives special education or language support services may want to contact the school directly to learn about those programs. No information on discipline, chronic absenteeism, or staffing ratios was provided either.

Monona itself is a compact, lakefront suburb of Madison that grew rapidly in the mid-twentieth century and has since held a stable population. It is organized around major road corridors rather than a traditional downtown, with civic buildings clustered near the intersection of Nichols and Schluter Roads and commercial activity spread along Broadway and Monona Drive. The city promotes itself as having a lower tax rate than neighboring Madison, and its extensive parks, lake access, and seasonal events like the farmers market and biergartens give it a family-oriented character. Housing values in the area are above the state median, reflecting the desirability of the near-Madison market. Most daily trips are car-dependent, though the Lake Monona Loop bike path provides a recreational and commuting link to the waterfront.

A recent district-level change will affect elementary attendance zones in the coming year. The Monona Grove School Board voted in late 2025 to consolidate two of its other elementary schools, Taylor Prairie and Cottage Grove, into a single site serving grades four-year-old kindergarten through second grade, beginning in the 2026-27 school year. That decision was based on facility capacity, enrollment trends, and operating costs. It does not directly change Winnequah’s attendance boundary or grade configuration, but it signals that the district is actively managing its elementary footprint as enrollment patterns shift. Families living in the Cottage Grove area who had expected their youngest children to attend a separate school will need to plan for a combined site.

For a family considering Winnequah, the school offers reliably above-average academic performance on state measures, set within a stable, amenity-rich suburb close to Madison. The school’s moderate size and relatively low poverty rate are typical of the area. The missing pieces on special populations and discipline data are gaps worth filling through a direct conversation with the school or district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 372%

School 72% · District 67% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 60% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 56% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 65% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 59% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 56% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 470%

School 70% · District 62% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 477%

School 77% · District 70% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

This schoolMonona Grove 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-income29%Higher-income79%50 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income77%44 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income70%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income82%52 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income77%48 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income73%44 pp gap