The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in Social studies. The lowest is 37% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Madison Elementary
Madison Elementary is a regular public school in the Wauwatosa School District, serving children from four-year-old kindergarten through fifth grade. It is one of nine elementary schools in a district that fans across Wauwatosa, an inner-ring suburb of Milwaukee with a mix of older walkable neighborhoods and auto-oriented commercial corridors along the beltline. The school itself sits in a residential area west of the Menomonee River, in a part of the city shaped by mid-century annexation that doubled the town’s size and created separated residential and commercial zones.
The student body is modest in size for its grade band. The largest single group of students is White, followed by Black students, and then smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school in a moderate range for an elementary in Milwaukee County. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the records examined, so a parent looking for those specifics would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, Madison posted results that, taken together, rank above the midpoint among districts in Milwaukee County. The pattern across tested grades and subjects is worth a closer look. In both math and English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or advanced was higher in fifth grade than in third or fourth grade. Fifth-grade reading proficiency, in particular, was notably strong. Fourth-grade science was a softer spot, while fourth-grade social studies came in closer to the stronger end. Because this is a single year’s snapshot, it is not possible to say from this data alone whether the school is improving over time. A parent may want to ask how these numbers compare with prior years and what the school’s own internal benchmarks look like.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No course access or program offerings were available in the data, so it is unclear what specialized offerings, if any, Madison provides beyond its regular elementary curriculum. The district as a whole, publicly reported, recently passed two referendums: one for facility improvements across the district covering safety upgrades, HVAC replacement, and accessibility, and an operational measure allowing the district to exceed state revenue limits for several years to maintain staffing and programming. The district also adopted a new literacy curriculum aligned with Wisconsin’s science-of-reading law, beginning implementation in the 2024-25 school year. And the district closed one elementary school at the end of the 2023-24 school year, with boundary changes for several schools taking effect the following fall. Those changes may affect which elementary a particular address feeds into, so families should confirm their attendance area with the district.
Wauwatosa itself is a stable, built-out city with a population that peaked decades ago and has since edged down slightly. Its housing stock is mostly owner-occupied, with very low vacancy in the owner market. The dominant employer is the Milwaukee County Regional Medical Center, including a major hospital and medical school, but the city also retains industrial and distribution operations from earlier eras. The village center along the river is walkable, and the city is served by bus transit. Home values in the zip code for Madison are in the middle range for the metro area, and rent has risen at a faster pace recently.
For a family considering Madison Elementary, the picture is one of a solid neighborhood school with academic results that sit comfortably above the average for its county. The upward trajectory across grade levels in reading and math is a positive signal, though the dips in third and fourth grade suggest some students may need extra support early on. The lack of data on special education and English learner populations is a gap a parent should fill directly. The district has made recent investments in facilities and literacy instruction, and the boundary changes mean it is especially important to verify the attendance zone. This is not a school with flashy programs or extensive extracurriculars visible from the available data, but for a family seeking a regular elementary school in a middle-market suburb with a strong medical and professional employment base, Madison is positioned as a reasonable pick within the district.
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