Stephens Elementary

Stephens Elementary is one of the middle-of-the-pack elementary campuss in Madison, Wisconsin, one of the schools within Madison Metropolitan School District, with 447 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 38% bigger than the typical public school in Wisconsin, which averages around 323 students.

Madison Metropolitan School District runs 53 schools in total, collectively educating 25,155 students. Stephens Elementary is one of those campuses.

Demographically, Stephens Elementary reports that 42% of students identify as White, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest looks like 30% Hispanic, 12% Black, 9% multiracial, 8% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 77% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 14.7:1 average. Roughly 44% of students at Stephens Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Dane County (around 32%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Stephens Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 50.6%; this one delivers 52.4%.

Across the wider county, census data for Dane County shows the typical household earns roughly $89,975 per year, 55% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Stephens Elementary is one of 169 public schools in Dane County (combined enrollment of about 78,525 students).

Nearest neighbor: Crestwood Elementary, around 0.7 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Stephens Elementary. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Stephens Elementary ranks 6th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 59.7%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Stephens Elementary has decreased 23%, going from 578 students in 2018 to 447 in 2025. The Asian share of enrollment decreased from 14% to 8% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 12.6:1 in 2018 to 10.4:1 in 2025.

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