Summary:
Madison Metropolitan School District serves Wisconsin's capital city and enrolls 7,795 high school students across eight schools — seven of them serving grades 9–12, plus Metro School, which also serves grades 6–8. The district splits sharply by size: four large comprehensive high schools — West High, Vel Phillips Memorial High School, East High, and LaFollette High — hold 95% of all high school enrollment, while four small alternative programs (Innovative High, Capital High, Shabazz-City High, and Metro) enroll just 385 students combined.
Performance varies enormously from school to school. West High is the clear standout: 5 stars, 94th percentile statewide, above the state average in all four tested subjects, and improving each year. Vel Phillips Memorial High School is the steadiest, with the district's highest graduation rate (90.6%) and its lowest dropout rate (1.1%). East High posted the largest one-year gain, rising from the 17th to the 50th percentile as its reading, math, and science scores all climbed. LaFollette High remains lower-performing despite a poverty profile nearly identical to East's.
Two district-wide patterns matter most for families. First, chronic absenteeism affects nearly every school: seven of eight exceed the state's 17.3%, including West High at 37.8%, even though dropout rates stay near the state average. Second, the four small alternative schools report highly volatile figures drawn from tiny test cohorts, so their single-year percentages deserve caution. The district's overall 1-star, 26th-percentile rating appears driven by graduation and attendance rather than test scores, since district proficiency meets or beats state averages in three of four subjects.
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