Best Public Schools in Zip Code 53717

The 53717 zip code area is home to two schools - Vel Phillips Memorial High School and Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School, both part of the Madison Metropolitan School District. While Vel Phillips Memorial High School performs above the district and state averages in several academic areas, Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School struggles to meet those benchmarks, particularly in English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.

Vel Phillips Memorial High School has a relatively high 4-year graduation rate of 86.9% and a low dropout rate of 1.5%. However, the school has a higher percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch (39.06%) compared to the state average. Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School, on the other hand, has a 0% dropout rate, but faces challenges with chronic absenteeism, with 41.7% of students chronically absent. The middle school also has a higher percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch (52.29%) compared to the state average.

Both schools spend more per student than the state average, with Vel Phillips Memorial High School spending $12,941 per student and Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School spending $15,508 per student. The student-teacher ratios also differ, with Vel Phillips Memorial High School having a slightly higher ratio of 16.4 and Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School having a lower ratio of 11.4. These insights suggest that while the district is allocating more resources to these schools, there is still a significant performance disparity between the high school and middle school in the 53717 zip code area.