Madison by the Numbers: Part 6 of Our 7-District Performance Comparison

The Sixth of Seven Reports on our 7-District Dashboard

We’ll start with the housekeeping and go over the same spiel we covered in our first five reports in the series.

We’re handling the 2024-25 NJ School Performance Reports differently this year by integrating the 7-District Comparisons into each District’s profile.

As a reminder, the Districts on our Dashboard include Berkeley Heights, Chatham, Madison, Millburn, New Providence, Summit and Westfield.

It’s important to remember that NJ moved to adaptive testing this year for Math and ELA, and in a recent email to NJ21st, NJDOE said much of what NJ21st requested regarding technical reporting, validation, comparability, psychometric analysis, and TAC-related materials was still in development.

This report focuses on Madison.

ELA, Math and Science

The overall ELA proficiency rate went up from 75.4% in 2023-24 to 78.8% in 2024-25. Grades 5, 6, 7 and 9 improved, while Grades 3, 4 and 8 went down or stayed flat. Grade 7 and 6 showd the greatest improvement.

Grade / Level	2023-24 ELA Proficiency	2024-25 ELA Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	75.4%	78.8%	+3.4 points	Districtwide ELA proficiency improved from the prior year.
Grade 3	74.2%	69.5%	-4.7 points	Largest ELA decline in this table.
Grade 4	81.0%	80.7%	-0.3 points	Essentially flat, with a slight decline.
Grade 5	86.2%	86.5%	+0.3 points	Essentially flat, with a slight improvement.
Grade 6	76.0%	86.8%	+10.8 points	One of the largest ELA improvements in the table.
Grade 7	69.7%	85.6%	+15.9 points	Largest ELA improvement in this table.
Grade 8	66.0%	65.9%	-0.1 points	Essentially flat.
Grade 9	74.2%	76.1%	+1.9 points	Improved from the prior year.

Madison’s 24-25 ELA proficiency rate of 78.8% is above its 2021-22 (73.6%,), its 23-24 rate (75.4%) and above the 18-19 pre-COVID benchmark of 76.3%.

Math also improved overall going from 67.6% in 23-24 to 70.0% in 24-25. Grades 6, 7, 8, Algebra I and Geometry got better, while Grades 3, 5 and Algebra II dipped. Grade 6 and Geometry posted the largest gains.

Grade / Level	2023-24 Math Proficiency	2024-25 Math Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	67.6%	70.0%	+2.4 points	Districtwide math proficiency improved from the prior year.
Grade 3	74.1%	62.1%	-12.0 points	Largest math decline in this table.
Grade 4	75.3%	75.4%	+0.1 points	Essentially flat.
Grade 5	81.0%	73.0%	-8.0 points	Declined from the prior year.
Grade 6	67.0%	81.4%	+14.4 points	Largest math improvement in this table.
Grade 7	64.2%	74.8%	+10.6 points	Improved from the prior year.
Grade 8	11.3%	26.6%	+15.3 points	Improved, but remained low.
Algebra I	58.1%	64.8%	+6.7 points	Improved from the prior year.
Geometry	66.7%	80.7%	+14.0 points	One of the largest math improvements in the table.
Algebra II	95.8%	95.2%	-0.6 points	Essentially flat, with a slight decline.

Madison’s 24-25 Math proficiency rate of 70.0% is above its 21-22 rate of 67.0% and above its 2023-24 rate of 67.6%.

Student growth was Typical in both ELA and Math. ELA growth increased from 50 in 23-24 to 56 in 24-25 and Math growth went from 52.5 in 23-24 to 61 in 24-25.

Measure	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Rating	Takeaway
Overall ELA mSGP	51	50	56	Typical	ELA growth improved from the prior year.
Overall Math mSGP	58	52.5	61	Typical	Math growth improved from the prior year and was above the 2022-23 level.

Madison’s 2024-25 ELA mSGP was 56, up from 50 in 2023-24 and 51 in 2022-23. Madison’s 2024-25 Math mSGP was 61, up from 52.5 in 2023-24 and 58 in 2022-23.

Going to Science, the 24-25 report displays an overall science figure directly and the table below uses the percentage meeting or exceeding expectations. For grade-level Science, that means combining Level 3 and Level 4 where data was available.

Overall Science went down from 23-24 to 24-25. Grade 5 declined, while Grades 8 and 11 improved.

Measure	2023-24 Science Proficiency	2024-25 Science Proficiency	Change	Takeaway
Overall District	44.1%	40.5%	-3.6 points	Overall science proficiency declined from the prior year.
Grade 5	61.7%	57.7%	-4.0 points	Declined from the prior year.
Grade 8	40.0%	44.7%	+4.7 points	Improved from the prior year.
Grade 11	42.5%	47.1%	+4.6 points	Improved from the prior year.

Madison’s overall 24-25 Science proficiency rate was 40.5% – under its 23-24 overall rate of 44.1%.

Graduation

NJGPA results showed 92.7% of Madison 11th graders as Graduation Ready in ELA and 82.4% as Graduation Ready in Math.

With that said, a note we’ll be making in every profile – three years ago the NJDOE lowered the cut score needed to pass the NJGPA.

Measure	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Takeaway
NJGPA ELA Graduation Ready	98.4%	95.3%	92.7%	Declined from the prior two years but remained above 90%.
NJGPA Math Graduation Ready	85.0%	85.4%	82.4%	Declined from the prior year.

Graduation Measure	Madison Rate	State Rate	Takeaway
Cohort 2025 4-year	97.9%	91.8%	Current 4-year graduation rate shown in the dashboard.
Cohort 2024 5-year	99.1%	92.9%	Five-year rate for the prior cohort.
Cohort 2023 6-year	97.7%	93.2%	Six-year rate for the cohort with available six-year data.

Environment

Another note we’re going to make with every district-specific report connects to chronic absenteeism – the NJDOE changed the inclusion rule by moving the minimum days present or absent from 45 days to 90 days, so better numbers in this area should be read with that change in mind.

Madison’s 24-25 chronic absenteeism rate was down slightly (9.2)% from 23-24 (9.7%), below its 21-22 rate (10.5%) but above its 22-23 rate (9.0%). One school was required to develop a corrective action plan.

School Year / Measure	Madison Chronic Absenteeism Rate	Change / Context
2021-22	10.5%	Highest rate in the listed period.
2022-23	9.0%	Lowest rate in the listed period.
2023-24	9.7%	Increased from 2022-23.
2024-25	9.2%	Down 0.5 percentage points from 2023-24, but still above 2022-23.
Schools Required to Develop Corrective Action Plan	1	One Madison school was reported as requiring a chronic absenteeism corrective action plan.

Madison had 34 total unique incidents in 2024-25, coming to 1.44 incidents per 100 students.

Measure	2024-25 Value	Takeaway
Total Unique Incidents	34	Overall count reported in the discipline dashboard.
Incidents Per 100 Students	1.44	Tracker value used for the 7-district comparison.

HIB was the largest category, followed by Violence. Vandalism was also listed. Substances and Weapons show as zero.

Incident Category	2024-25 Incidents	Takeaway
Total Unique Incidents	34	Overall count reported in the discipline dashboard.
HIB	20	Largest listed incident category.
Violence	8	Second-largest listed incident category.
Vandalism	4	Listed below HIB and violence.
Substances	0	No substance incidents listed.
Weapons	0	No weapons incidents listed.

Incident categories shouldn’t be added together because a single incident may be counted under multiple incident types.

7-District Comparison

In ELA, Madison ranked fourth out of seven districts and was slightly below the 7-district average.

ELA Proficiency

Madison: 78.8% | 7-District Average: 79.2% | Rank: 4th of 7

Madison — 78.8%

7-District Average — 79.2%

In Math, Madison ranked sixth out of seven districts and was below the 7-district average.

Math Proficiency

Madison: 70.0% | 7-District Average: 74.5% | Rank: 6th of 7

Madison — 70.0%

7-District Average — 74.5%

In Science, Madison ranked seventh out of seven districts and was below the 7-district average.

Science Proficiency

Madison: 40.5% | 7-District Average: 55.6% | Rank: 7th of 7

Madison — 40.5%

7-District Average — 55.6%

In ELA student growth, Madison tied for second out of seven districts and was above the 7-district average.

ELA Student Growth

Madison: 56 | 7-District Average: 51.0 | Rank: tied for 2nd of 7

Madison — 56

7-District Average — 51.0

In Math student growth, Madison ranked second out of seven districts and was above the 7-district average.

Math Student Growth

Madison: 61 | 7-District Average: 54.1 | Rank: 2nd of 7

Madison — 61

7-District Average — 54.1

Lower is better with chronic absenteeism, and Madison ranked sixth lowest out of the seven districts, above the 7-district average.

Chronic Absenteeism

Madison: 9.2% | 7-District Average: 6.2% | Rank: 6th lowest of 7, where lower is better

Madison — 9.2%

Average — 6.2%

Lower is also better with discipline incidents, and Madison ranked fourth lowest out of seven districts, slightly worse than the 7-district average.

Discipline Incidents Per 100 Students

Madison: 1.44 | 7-District Average: 1.43 | Rank: 4th lowest of 7, where lower is better

Madison — 1.44

7-District Average — 1.43

Source

7-District School Performance Series

Explore the Full District Comparison

This article is part of NJ21st’s seven-district school performance series, reviewing Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, Westfield, Chatham, Madison, and Millburn using the latest state performance data.

View the Hub →

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