Summary:
Zip code 24015 in Roanoke, Virginia, is home to two public middle schools—Woodrow Wilson Middle and James Madison Middle—both operated by Roanoke City Public Schools and serving grades 6 through 8 in a high-poverty urban setting.
James Madison Middle is the stronger academic school overall, ranking 357th of 416 Virginia middle schools (14th percentile, 1 star), 22 spots ahead of Woodrow Wilson Middle. Madison posts higher reading proficiency in every grade and consistently excels in advanced coursework, with 96.9% proficiency in 7th-grade Algebra I and 100% in Earth Science in 2025-2026. Woodrow Wilson Middle, by contrast, stands out for attendance and staffing: its chronic absenteeism rate is 21.1% compared to Madison's 27.5%, and its student-teacher ratio is 11.9:1 versus Madison's 14.1:1. Wilson also outperforms Madison in 8th-grade grade-level math (20.0% vs. 8.7%) and Civics.
Both schools serve almost exclusively economically disadvantaged students, with over 99% qualifying for free/reduced lunch. The most striking pattern is the math divide: advanced math proficiency averages ~85% at Wilson and ~95% at Madison, while on-grade-level math proficiency is just ~21% and ~16%, respectively—far below the state average near 54%. Math proficiency also declines sharply from 6th to 8th grade at both schools. Reading is a relative bright spot, with both schools outperforming their district average in most grades. State rankings have stalled or declined: Wilson dropped from the 18th to 9th percentile over three years, while Madison plateaued in the bottom 15%. Given the extreme poverty and low-performing district context, these schools face serious challenges in bringing the majority of students to grade-level proficiency.
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