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What's one community event at Thoreau Elementary more people should show up to?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
403
Elementary
DISTRICT 375 · STATE 323
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 550852000964
Thoreau Elementary
3870 Nakoma Rd, Madison, WI 53711 · (608) 204-6940 · Dane County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL403 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
37 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 10.9:1 · STATE 14.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
43%
175 students
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 42%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 23 | 6% |
| Kindergarten | 61 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 65 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 61 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 67 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 58 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 68 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (61) is 10% smaller than its 5th grade class (68).
Student demographics
65%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
59.3%
WI avg 53.1% . +5.1pp since 2023
Math
56.0%
WI avg 54.8% . -1.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the Forward Exam, Wisconsin's statewide test, about 59 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 56 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Wisconsin schools, those numbers are about 53 and 55. Reading and writing scores are up about 5 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 1 points.
Forward Exam results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 59.3% | 56.0% |
| 2023-24 | 54.2% | 57.1% |
% 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
60.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
51.0%
based on WI schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+9.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 60% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 51% 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 Thoreau Elementary
Thoreau Elementary's state test result (60.0% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thoreau Elementary this school | 403 | 43.4% | 60.0% |
| Jeffery Elementary Kenosha | 338 | 46.2% | 67.3% |
| Bay View Montessori School Milwaukee | 449 | 36.5% | 58.1% |
| Midvale Elementary Madison | 372 | 42.2% | N/A |
| Whittier Elementary Pleasant Prairie | 459 | 37.0% | 56.8% |
| Blakewood Elementary South Milwaukee | 314 | 47.8% | 54.8% |
Matched among Wisconsin elementary 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 Thoreau Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Wisconsin | In Dane County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 60.0% | #413 of 982 | #40 of 74 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 56.0% | #476 of 992 ▲ 26 | #41 of 74 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 59.3% | #352 of 992 ▲ 144 | #37 of 74 ▲ 10 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 403 | #340 of 1,157 | #37 of 93 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.0:1 | #135 of 901 | #25 of 83 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 64.5% | #164 of 901 | #33 of 83 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 43.4% | #526 of 1,064 | #26 of 91 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.1% | #521 of 664 | #50 of 61 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
403
-12 (-3%) vs 2020
-9% since 1990-91, when it was 445
Student : Teacher
11.0:1
was 11.9:1
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 | 403 | 36.7 | 11.0:1 | 43% (175) |
| 2023-24 | 398 | 34.4 | 11.6:1 | 35% (141) |
| 2022-23 | 415 | 35.9 | 11.6:1 | 43% (180) |
| 2020-21 | 415 | 35 | 11.9:1 | 47% (193) |
| 2017-18 | 434 | 37.8 | 11.5:1 | 43% (186) |
| 2015-16 | 454 | 36 | 12.6:1 | 44% (199) |
| 2010-11 | 404 | 33 | 12.2:1 | 53% (216) |
| 2000-01 | 323 | 30 | 10.8:1 | 29% (95) |
| 1990-91 | 445 | 28 | 15.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Thoreau Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 7% (434 to 403); teachers down 3% (37.8 to 36.7).
About Thoreau Elementary
Thoreau Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school in Wisconsin, located in Madison. Its enrollment is 403 students, spread over pre-K through 5. Elementary schools in Wisconsin average about 323 students, which makes this school 25% above average.
Madison Metropolitan School District is the local district for Thoreau Elementary. It runs 53 schools with 25,155 students.
The student body at Thoreau Elementary is 51% White. After that, the student body is 26% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 7% multiracial. Among all residents of Dane County, the White share is about 77%. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 65%.
The school had 36.7 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 11.0:1. By comparison, the average for elementary schools in Wisconsin is 14.7:1. The school reported 43% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25. That rate is above the 32% average among public schools in Dane County.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 51.0% for Thoreau Elementary. The school posts 60.0%, 9.0 points above the prediction.
In the surrounding county, Dane County, median household income comes to about $89,975, about 55% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 5%. The county's public schools total 169, with about 78,525 students.
Straight-line distance to the nearest public school, Cherokee Heights Middle, is about 0.5 miles. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. On state test proficiency, Thoreau Elementary ranks 3rd in a group of 7 nearby schools.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is City: Large: inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
By 2024-25, enrollment had dropped to 403, from 415 in 2020-21.
This page is set up for the Thoreau Elementary community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
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 Thoreau Elementary schools
2 other US public schools in 2 states are named Thoreau Elementary. Thoreau Elementary is the largest of the 3.
- Thoreau ElementaryMilwaukee, WI · 353 students
- THOREAU ELEMENTARYTHOREAU, NM · 359 students
Nearby schools
- Cherokee Heights Middle0.5 mi · 526
- Midvale Elementary0.8 mi · 372
- Hamilton Middle1.6 mi · 790
- Capital High1.6 mi · 129
- Van Hise Elementary1.6 mi · 396
- Leopold Elementary1.7 mi · 626
Frequently asked questions
About Thoreau ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Thoreau Elementary?
Thoreau Elementary enrolls approximately 403 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Thoreau Elementary serve?
Thoreau Elementary serves grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Thoreau Elementary have?
Thoreau Elementary employs 37 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 11.0:1.
How diverse is Thoreau Elementary?
Thoreau Elementary reports a student body of 51% White, 26% Hispanic, 14% Black, 1% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Is Thoreau Elementary public or private?
Thoreau Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Madison Metropolitan School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.