Summary:
ZIP code 53704 in Madison, Wisconsin is home to two public middle schools — Sherman Middle and Black Hawk Middle — both serving grades 6–8 and both part of the Madison Metropolitan School District, together enrolling roughly 700 middle-grade students. Both schools hold a 1-star rating and score below district and state averages on proficiency tests, so the most useful thing for families is to compare how the two schools differ from each other within that shared context.
Sherman Middle is the stronger performer and the one trending upward. It outscored Black Hawk Middle in 15 of 16 test comparisons, improved on every subject and grade year-over-year, and raised its all-subject average from 33.0% to 38.1% proficient. Its best result was 8th-grade Social Studies at 45.65%. Sherman's chronic absenteeism (25.5%) is lower than Black Hawk's and even better than the district's 29.6%, and its statewide rank has climbed from the 15th to the 18th percentile.
Black Hawk Middle stands out for need and resource intensity rather than results. It has the higher poverty indicator (70.33% free/reduced lunch), smaller classes (8.7:1 vs. 11.0:1) and higher per-student spending ($22,919 vs. $19,194), yet its all-subject average fell from 31.5% to 28.6% and it trails in reading and content-area subjects — its 8th-grade Math actually beats Sherman's. Its chronic absenteeism is 41.9%, more than 2 in 5 students, and well above district and state. One bright spot: dropout rates at both schools (0.0% and 0.3%) are below district and state.
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