Summary:
ZIP code 53705 in Madison is home to two public middle schools serving grades 6–8 — Hamilton Middle (790 students) and Spring Harbor Middle (269 students) — both part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. The most striking thing for parents is the contrast with the district overall: Madison Metropolitan School District is rated at the 26th percentile with 1 star, while both of these schools outscore the district and the state on every listed test.
Hamilton Middle is the stronger of the two and one of the top middle schools in Wisconsin, ranking 21st out of 643 schools statewide with a 5-star rating — it has held 5 stars for three straight years, climbing from the 94th to the 97th percentile. Proficiency is consistently high across subjects: roughly 77–80% in ELA and math, 89.54% in 8th-grade social studies, and 83.19% in 8th-grade science. Chronic absenteeism is 16.9%, below both the district (29.6%) and the state (17.3%), and the dropout rate is 0.0%. Class sizes are slightly larger, with a 14.4 student-teacher ratio.
Spring Harbor Middle is also a standout: 71st of 643, 89th percentile, 4 stars, up from the 81st percentile three years ago. Its 8th-grade ELA proficiency of 80.46% essentially matches Hamilton Middle's 80.43%. Math is its softer area (65.52–68.60%), though it posted the biggest single gain in the data — 6th-grade math up 9.98 points — while 7th-grade ELA slipped 8.06 points. It has a higher free/reduced-lunch rate (27.51% vs. 19.37%), smaller classes (12.1 ratio), higher per-student spending ($19,064 vs. $16,988), and chronic absenteeism of 19.3% — better than the district but slightly above the state.
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