Shorewood Hills Elementary

Shorewood Hills Elementary is a PK–5 school of 368 students on Shorewood Blvd in Madison, WI, part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. In 2025–2026 it ranked 6th of 1,039 Wisconsin elementary schools (99th percentile, 5 stars), even though its district ranks 321st of 432 (26th percentile). That contrast is the most striking fact in the data, and it isn't new: every year on record, from 2015–16 through 2025–26, the school has been 5 stars and 98th percentile or better.

Test scores back it up. On the 2025–2026 Forward Exam, 86.3% of third graders, 80.9% of fourth graders and 96.3% of fifth graders were proficient in ELA, with math at 87.5%, 91.8% and 96.3%, against state rates in the low-to-mid 50s. The most telling comparison is Crestwood Elementary, two miles away in the same district, with nearly identical free/reduced-lunch rates (24.23% vs 24.18%). Crestwood ranks 231st of 1,039 (78th percentile), scores roughly 17–28 points lower and has 16.8% chronic absenteeism versus 10.9%. Van Hise Elementary (1.2 miles, 92nd percentile) serves a lower-poverty population yet is outperformed in every subject and grade. Elm Lawn Elementary, in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, is the one nearby peer that beats Shorewood Hills on anything — absenteeism, at 7.1%.

Chronic absenteeism of 10.9% is about a third of the district's 29.6% and well below the state's 17.3%. The school ranks in the top 1% statewide for both female and male students, and in the top 5–10% for English learners, students with disabilities and low-income students. It also spends less per student ($18,912) than every other MMSD school compared, with a student–teacher ratio of 11.5. One caveat: the free/reduced-lunch rate moved from 23.62% to 12.3% to 24.18% over three years, which looks like a reporting change rather than a real swing in family income.