Madison School

Madison School is a pre-kindergarten through 6th grade elementary school in Bridgeport, CT, serving 451 students with nearly 90% eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Madison ranks in the 16th percentile of Connecticut elementary schools for 2025-26, which places it in the bottom fifth statewide but notably above most other traditional neighborhood schools in the Bridgeport School District.

Madison's strongest results come in the early grades. In 3rd grade math, 30.5% of students met proficiency targets in 2025-26, nearly double the average for the Bridgeport School District of 15.6%, and 3rd grade reading was similarly strong at 27.1% vs. 13.8% district-wide. The school also posts notably stronger results with its Hispanic students, who ranked in the 44th percentile statewide in 2025-26, far above the school's overall 16th-percentile standing. Madison maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12.5 to 1 and per-pupil spending of roughly $15,217, both comparable to or better than nearby schools like Read School and Blackham School.

The challenge is that early gains fade. By 5th and 6th grade, proficiency rates fall below district averages. Chronic absenteeism is a major barrier, with 30.3% of students missing substantial instructional time, compared with just 9.8% at Interdistrict Discovery Magnet School and 4.9% at Stratfield School in the neighboring Fairfield School District. While Madison outperforms most nearby traditional Bridgeport schools, it trails far behind magnet schools like Park City Magnet School and suburban schools like Stratfield School, which sit less than two miles away yet serve a very different demographic. Madison is a school with genuine strengths in the primary grades, but attendance challenges and a decline in upper-grade outcomes remain the key obstacles to improvement.