Forest Edge Elementary School, Fitchburg WI

Original Research by School Decision on Forest Edge Elementary School

Forest Edge Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Fitchburg, a fast-growing suburb south of Madison. It is part of the Oregon School District, which has been planning for expansion; publicly reported district materials reference a projected enrollment increase that prompted the construction of a new elementary school in recent years and a planned capital referendum for a second middle school. A family looking at Forest Edge is therefore buying into a school system that is actively managing growth rather than one that is static or shrinking.

The school itself sits in a community that has a distinctly suburban and spread-out character. Fitchburg lacks a traditional downtown core, with civic buildings dispersed rather than clustered on a main street. What the city does have is a strong economic base, home to a large number of enterprises in biotech, instrumentation, advanced manufacturing, and information technology. The Epic Systems campus lies just west in Verona, and transit routes connect Fitchburg residents there. The city is also linked to the Madison area's extensive bike path network through the Badger State Trail and other routes, and a Bus Rapid Transit line is expected to begin service by 2027. This is a place where many parents likely work in tech or professional fields, and the housing market reflects that: home values sit well above national medians, and the monthly mortgage cost on a typical home is substantially higher than the typical rent, making this a community where homebuyers, especially those moving in from outside the area, will need to budget carefully.

Turning to the school itself, Forest Edge is a regular public school with no charter or magnet status. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary building. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students who are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or of two or more races. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a largely middle- to upper-middle-income population. This is also a school where state testing participation rates were very high across all tested grades, which matters for interpreting the results that follow.

Those results are a significant strength. On the Wisconsin Forward Exam, across math, English language arts, science, and social studies, the school's proficiency rates were strong and notably consistent. Fourth-grade students posted especially high marks in both ELA and math, and the science and social studies results in that grade were particularly high. The overall proficiency composite, which averages all tested subjects and grades, places Forest Edge in the top quartile of schools relative to all districts in Dane County. That is a clear and meaningful signal: among the county's many districts, this school stands out for academic performance. Parents looking for a school where a large majority of students meet state benchmarks in core subjects will find that here.

A few things are missing from the available picture. We looked for chronic absenteeism data and found none reported. We also looked for information on special education identification rates, English learner populations, and staffing ratios, and those fields were absent. A parent with a child who has an Individualized Education Program or who is an English language learner may want to ask the school directly about how those programs are structured. There is no graduation rate to report because the school ends at sixth grade, and there are no program offerings cataloged, so details on art, music, physical education, or specialized enrichment are not in the record.

For a family considering this area, Forest Edge presents a straightforward proposition. Academically, it is a high-performing elementary school in a district that is investing in new capacity to keep up with enrollment growth. The community is suburban and economically dynamic, with a strong employment base and improving transit connections to Madison. The trade-offs are typical of any growing suburb: higher housing costs, a less walkable layout than a dense city neighborhood, and a student body that is not especially diverse along socioeconomic lines. A parent who values strong state test results and is comfortable with a suburban, car-oriented setting will likely find Forest Edge a solid fit.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 76%

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

Grade 482%

School 82% · District 78% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

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

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 77% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 70% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 482%

School 82% · District 72% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 66% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 68% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 484%

School 84% · District 73% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 494%

School 94% · District 84% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

This schoolOregon 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-income60%Higher-income67%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income88%68 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income84%42 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income77%44 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income64%Higher-income78%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income20%Higher-income88%68 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income73%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income33%Higher-income85%51 pp gap