Madison Consolidated Junior High School

Madison Consolidated Junior High School is a middle school in Madison, Indiana, serving grades 5–8 with 728 students as part of Madison Consolidated Schools. The school generally ranks above its district: in 2025–2026 it placed 182nd of 486 Indiana schools (63rd percentile, 3 stars), while the district ranked 190th of 374 (49th percentile, 2 stars). Its longer-term history shows a big climb followed by a recent slide — from the 29th percentile in 2016–2017 (1 star) up to the 78th percentile in 2023–2024 (4 stars), then down to the 65th percentile and 63rd percentile in the two most recent years.

Compared with nearby schools, Madison is the largest and highest-ranked of the three. Switzerland County Middle School (grades 7–8, 215 students) sits in the 49th percentile, and Southwestern Middle School (grades 6–8, 280 students) is in the 41st percentile — both rated 2 stars. Madison's results, however, are uneven by grade. Its 8th grade is a clear strength, with ELA at 60.56% and math at 41.11%, both above the state. Its 5th grade is the opposite: ELA at 20.63% and math at 21.69%, far below state rates of 42.2% and 42.0%. Because nearby schools don't serve grade 5, that grade pulls down Madison's all-grade averages, which can make the school look weaker in direct comparisons than its 7th- and 8th-grade results suggest. In math overall, Madison's 30.23% leads the nearby group.

The biggest concern is attendance. Madison's chronic absenteeism was 30.8% in 2024–2025 — well above Indiana's 16.7%, Switzerland County's 19.4%, and Southwestern's 11.5%, and up from 23.3% the prior year. Notably, Southwestern has the highest free/reduced lunch rate (60.0%) but the lowest absenteeism, so poverty alone doesn't explain the difference. Madison spends $12,117 per student, nearly identical to Switzerland County's $12,115 and about $2,400 more than Southwestern's $9,715, yet its student–teacher ratio is 15.6 versus 13 at both nearby schools. For parents, the takeaway is a school whose strengths are real but concentrated in the upper grades, with attendance and 5th-grade performance as the areas most in need of attention.