Lowell Elementary

Lowell Elementary operates as a middle-of-the-pack elementary-level community in Madison, Wisconsin, overseen by Madison Metropolitan School District. Current enrollment sits at 329 students spanning grades pre-K through 5.

Lowell Elementary is one of 53 schools operated by Madison Metropolitan School District, a district that instructs 25,155 students overall.

Looking at the student body, Lowell Elementary lists that the most-represented group is White (51%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school logs 26% Black, 12% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 2% Asian. By comparison, Dane County as a whole is about 77% White, so the school skews noticeably less White than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.8:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.7:1 average. An estimated 45% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Dane County (around 32%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Lowell Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 50.2%, the actual is 56.2%, a residual of +6.0 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Dane County indicate the typical household earns roughly $89,975 per year, about 55% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, 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 Lowell Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is East High, roughly 0.8 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Lowell Elementary. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Lowell Elementary ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 42.6%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Looking at the recent track record. Lowell Elementary's enrollment has shrank 5% since 2018, when it stood at 348 (now 329). Over the same period, the White share decreased from 63% to 51%.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Lowell Elementary typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.