Kennedy Elementary

Kennedy Elementary, a roomy primary school in Madison, Wisconsin, operated by Madison Metropolitan School District, instructs 582 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 80% bigger than the typical public school in Wisconsin, which averages around 323 students.

Madison Metropolitan School District comprises 53 schools with combined enrollment of 25,155 students; Kennedy Elementary is among them.

On demographics, Kennedy Elementary shows that 41% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school reports 30% White, 11% multiracial, 11% Hispanic, 7% Asian. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 5%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Kennedy Elementary records 53 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 10.9:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 14.7:1, putting Kennedy Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. About 62% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is above Dane County's rate of about 32%.

After controlling for student poverty, Kennedy Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 39.9%, the actual is 28.7%, a residual of -11.2 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Dane County) shows that median household income runs about $89,975, roughly 55% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 5%. In all, Dane County runs 169 public schools (combined enrollment of about 78,525 students), of which Kennedy Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Elvehjem Elementary, around 1.1 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Kennedy Elementary comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 39.5%.

Kennedy Elementary operates from an inner-city location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 10%: 530 students in 2018 compared to 582 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 17% to 41% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 14.1:1 in 2018 to 10.9:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, members of the Kennedy Elementary community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.