Summary
James Wright Middle is a grades 6–8 school at 1717 Fish Hatchery Rd in Madison, Wisconsin, serving 245 students as part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. Its 2025–2026 state rank is 522nd of 643 middle schools — the 19th percentile, with a 1-star rating — and it has generally ranked between the 10th and 19th percentile since 2015–2016. The district itself ranks 321st of 432 districts statewide.
About 68% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–2025, a higher share than at most nearby schools, including Toki Middle (46%), Cherokee Heights Middle (48%), Sennett Middle (53%), O'Keeffe Middle (43%), Savanna Oaks Middle (27%), Spring Harbor Middle (28%) and Hamilton Middle (19%). The school spends $22,591 per student with a student-teacher ratio of 9.6 — smaller classes and higher spending than Hamilton, which spends $16,988 with a ratio of 14.4 yet ranks in the 97th percentile. Proficiency was 34–50% in ELA, 30–32% in math, 36% in 8th grade science and 51% in 8th grade social studies, below district and state averages except 8th grade ELA, which is near the district's 50.44%. Chronic absenteeism was 24.2%, better than the district's 29.6% but above the state's 17.3%.
Progress is real: since 2022–2023, 8th grade ELA rose from about 23% to 50%, 6th and 7th grade math roughly doubled, and absenteeism fell from 30% to 24.2%. Math remains the biggest gap, running 15–21 points below the district. Effectiveness by student group is uneven — strong for English learner students (81st percentile) and African American students (79th), but low for low-income students (15th percentile), the school's largest group. Its 8th grade ELA, science and social studies results compare favorably with Sennett and Cherokee Heights.
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