1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Sherman Middle right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
400
Middle
DISTRICT 416 · STATE 381
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 550852002435
Sherman Middle
1610 Ruskin St, Madison, WI 53704 · (608) 204-2100 · Dane County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL400 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 11.2:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
60%
240 students
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 119 | 30% |
| Grade 7 | 146 | 37% |
| Grade 8 | 135 | 34% |
Student demographics
75%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 73% · STATE 54% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
Forward Exam 2024-25 . % Meeting or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
34.0%
WI avg 53.1% . -0.5pp since 2023
Math
26.9%
WI avg 54.8% . +0.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 34 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 27 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Wisconsin schools, those numbers are about 53 and 55. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 34.0% | 26.9% |
| 2023-24 | 34.5% | 26.7% |
% Meeting or Advanced, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Forward Exam. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
32.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
40.8%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 32% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 41% typical for Wisconsin schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Wisconsin's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Sherman Middle
Sherman Middle's state test result (32.1% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherman Middle this school | 400 | 60.0% | 32.1% |
| Whitehorse Middle Madison | 415 | 59.0% | 34.6% |
| Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School Madison | 462 | 53.2% | 40.6% |
| Sabish Middle Fond du Lac | 445 | 57.3% | 53.7% |
| Sennett Middle Madison | 570 | 52.6% | 33.9% |
| Aldrich Intermediate Beloit | 521 | 66.4% | 25.4% |
Matched among Wisconsin middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Sherman Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Dane County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 32.1% | #306 of 323 | #32 of 33 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 26.9% | #309 of 327 ▲ 1 | #31 of 33 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 34.0% | #303 of 327 ▼ 9 | #33 of 33 ▼ 4 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 400 | #162 of 389 | #24 of 35 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.0:1 | #35 of 265 | #7 of 29 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 75.2% | #3 of 265 | #2 of 29 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 60.0% | #40 of 323 | #3 of 33 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -14.2% | #72 of 176 | #9 of 18 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
400
-34 (-8%) vs 2020
-20% since 2000-01, when it was 503
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
was 11.7:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 400 | 36.2 | 11.0:1 | 60% (240) |
| 2023-24 | 385 | 29.2 | 13.2:1 | 54% (206) |
| 2022-23 | 401 | 34.1 | 11.8:1 | 58% (233) |
| 2020-21 | 434 | 37 | 11.7:1 | 69% (298) |
| 2017-18 | 466 | 41.2 | 11.3:1 | 64% (299) |
| 2015-16 | 415 | 37 | 11.2:1 | 74% (307) |
| 2010-11 | 381 | 33 | 11.6:1 | 71% (270) |
| 2000-01 | 503 | 43 | 11.7:1 | 29% (148) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sherman Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 14% (466 to 400); teachers down 12% (41.2 to 36.2).
About Sherman Middle
Sherman Middle sits in Madison, Wisconsin, and is classified as a middle school. The latest federal count shows 400 students in grades 6 through 8.
Madison Metropolitan School District is made up of 53 schools with 25,155 students in all.
Sherman Middle's enrollment has no majority group, and Hispanic students are the largest at 31%. It is also 29% White, 24% Black, 10% multiracial, and 6% Asian. Dane County's residents are about 8% Hispanic, 23 points below the school's share. By the diversity index, Sherman Middle comes in at 75%.
Federal data list 36.2 full-time-equivalent teachers at Sherman Middle in 2024-25, for a ratio of 11.0:1. The average ratio among middle schools in Wisconsin is 12.8:1, higher than at this school. The school's rate of free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 60%. It compares with 32% for public schools in Dane County.
The model predicts 40.8% for a school in Wisconsin with Sherman Middle's free or reduced-price lunch share. Sherman Middle posts 32.1%.
County data help place the school in context: in Dane County, median household income is about $89,975, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 55%, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Sherman Middle is among the 169 public schools in Dane County.
The nearest public school is Shabazz-City High, at less than a tenth of a mile. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Of the 8 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Sherman Middle is 6th on average proficiency.
The school's locale code, City: Large, means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The student count in 2024-25 was 400, 8% below the 434 of 2020-21.
Posts about school safety, transportation, and start times are welcome on this page. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Dane County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
572,674
Census ACS
Median income
$89,975
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
55%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
169
78,525 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Madison Metropolitan School District
- West HighHigh · 2,222 students
- Vel Phillips Memorial High SchoolHigh · 2,004 students
- East HighHigh · 1,643 students
- LaFollette HighHigh · 1,541 students
- Hamilton MiddleMiddle · 790 students
- Cesar Chavez ElementaryElementary · 631 students
Other schools in Madison
- West HighHigh · 2,222 students
- Vel Phillips Memorial High SchoolHigh · 2,004 students
- East HighHigh · 1,643 students
- LaFollette HighHigh · 1,541 students
- Hamilton MiddleMiddle · 790 students
- Cesar Chavez ElementaryElementary · 631 students
Other Sherman Middle schools
One other US public school is named Sherman Middle. Sherman Middle is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Sherman Middle SchoolSHERMAN, TX · 869 students
Nearby schools
- Shabazz-City High0.0 mi · 106
- Isthmus Montessori Academy Public0.4 mi · 210
- Lake View Elementary1.2 mi · 292
- Emerson Elementary1.3 mi · 297
- East High1.5 mi · 1,643
- Mendota Elementary1.7 mi · 282
Frequently asked questions
About Sherman MiddleWhat is the total enrollment at Sherman Middle?
Sherman Middle enrolls approximately 400 students in grades 06-08.
Is Sherman Middle an elementary, middle, or high school?
Sherman Middle is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Sherman Middle have?
Sherman Middle employs 36 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 11.0:1.
What is the student diversity at Sherman Middle?
Student demographics at Sherman Middle are roughly 29% White, 31% Hispanic, 24% Black, 6% Asian, 10% Two or more.
What district is Sherman Middle in?
Sherman Middle is part of Madison Metropolitan School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.