Madison Elementary

Madison Elementary is a small K-5 school in McLeansville, NC, serving 204 students in the Guilford County Schools district, where nearly all students come from economically disadvantaged families. Its latest state ranking places the school at 1265 out of 1492 North Carolina elementary schools — a 15th-percentile, one-star rating that fits a decade-long pattern of bottom-quintile performance, interrupted only occasionally by stronger years such as 2020-21. Nearby schools serve very similar student populations, yet several achieve noticeably stronger academic results.

The biggest red flag for parents is a steep drop in 4th-grade performance. In 2025-26, just 8% of Madison 4th graders were proficient in math, versus 57% across the district and 61% statewide. Reedy Fork Elementary, only 2.8 miles away, posted 53.1% in the same subject. Fourth-grade reading is also low at 24% proficiency, with only Bessemer Elementary (23.3%) similarly low among nearby schools. Encouragingly, Madison's 5th-grade science proficiency of 69% tops the state average of 67.7% and outperforms Reedy Fork, Ronald E. McNair Elementary, and McLeansville Elementary, suggesting strong instruction is possible in this building.

Chronic absenteeism remains a persistent challenge: 32.1% of Madison students were chronically absent in 2024-25, above the district (29.2%) and state (24.2%) rates, while nearby charters like Summit Creek Academy (8.4%) and Aggie Academy (15.2%) report far lower absence. Madison spends more per pupil ($11,871) and has a lower student-teacher ratio (13.7) than most neighboring schools, but those resources have not yet translated into higher overall scores. Because the school enrolls only 30–40 children per grade, proficiency rates can swing dramatically as different cohorts move through, so parents should watch trends across multiple years rather than any single grade-level result.