MMSD presents 2024–25 year‑in‑review: mixed academic results, middle‑school gains and higher attendance

Madison Metropolitan School District leaders presented a year‑in‑review of 2024–25 student outcomes and improvement work, reporting mixed academic results with notable gains in some middle schools, continued increases in overall attendance, and expanded summer programming.

Superintendent Dr. Gothard and district instructional staff told the Board of Education they continue to use the district improvement plan and school improvement plans (SIPs) — together with central office department improvement plans (CODIPs) — as a coordinated “improvement ecosystem” to drive work on the district’s strategic goals.

Key district figures presented for 2024–25 included: • Forward Exam (grades 3–8): elementary (grades 3–5) reading proficiency at 47% and middle school (grades 6–8) at 50% (middle school showed a 3 percentage‑point increase year‑over‑year). Forward math showed elementary proficiency at 43% (down 2 points) and middle school at 43% (up 2 points). • ACT / preACT: 40% of 11th‑grade students met the ACT reading college‑readiness benchmark (up 2 points); ACT math readiness rose to 32% (up 4 points). PreACT results for 9th–10th grade were reported as broadly stable. • High school outcomes: the official four‑year high school completion rate for the recent cohort was 87%, a small decline from the previous year. • Attendance: 71% of students district‑wide met the 90% attendance benchmark (i.e., not chronically absent), continuing an upward trend; elementary and middle schools showed larger gains than high schools.

District staff spotlighted schools that posted strong gains tied to targeted SIP strategies and additional supports. Examples the presentation named included Lakeview (elementary literacy up about 10 percentage points overall, with larger gains for Black students and students eligible for free/reduced‑price meals), Blackhawk (middle school literacy up 12 percentage points), Inanna (math overall up 8 points, Black students up 20 points) and Presswood (math gains for disadvantaged students).

Brie Monahan of the Research, Investment and Improvement (RAI) team and other staff described quarterly reviews of SIP and CODIP progress, and said the district is emphasizing consistent core instruction, data‑driven small‑group work, staff co‑planning and targeted interventions.

The presentation also summarized summer work: roughly 3,500 students attended summer semester programming; the district staffed nearly 463 summer staff (462 MMSD staff and one external), ran 23 career and technical discovery camps serving about 295 students, hosted a Freedom School program at Mendota with a 50‑student roster (46 completed), and expanded arts, band and orchestra offerings. Staff said qualitative summer satisfaction measures were high and that impact data would follow later in the year.

Board members asked technical questions about the assessments, subgroup disaggregation and cohort versus grade‑band comparisons; they also requested further breakdowns (for example, coursework completed before ACT testing and details on students coded as multiracial) and probed how the district will set performance targets as it finalizes a new strategic plan. Administrators said more detailed disaggregations and cohort analyses are available in the meeting addendum and that further reporting will be provided to the board.

The board approved a routine procedural motion earlier in the meeting to accept minutes from an Instruction Work Group meeting dated Aug. 4, 2025; the motion carried, according to the transcript. There were no substantive legislative or budget votes recorded in the excerpted meeting minutes.

Ending: District leaders framed the data as an early signal of where multi‑year improvement strategies are working and where more effort is needed, and pledged to bring additional disaggregated analysis and follow‑up proposals to the board this fall and winter.