LightField Studios // Shutterstock
1 / 25#25. Clark Street Community School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 100 (10:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
Best high schools in the Madison metro area
According to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 15.5 million students attend public high school every year, and more than 3.76 million are expected to graduate in 2025. However, those students have a wide variety of experiences over the course of their high school careers.
To start, issues surrounding equal educational access persist throughout the United States. A January 2025 report published in Frontiers found that disparities across socioeconomic status, race, gender, and geography can lead to negative outcomes and the perpetuation of systemic barriers.
Outside of these issues, students also pursue many different paths within high school. Roughly 8.3 million high schoolers attend educational programs to prepare for careers in fields like transportation, landscaping, and culinary arts. Meanwhile, nearly 2.5 million are in dual enrollment programs that offer high school and college credit for the same course, allowing students to get a jump on higher education degrees.
Dual enrollment programs are particularly useful considering that more than 3 in 5 (61%) high school graduates head to college, per a 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Unfortunately, high school doesn't always guarantee college success. In 2024, the average SAT score declined for the third straight year, and nearly 2 in 5 (39%) test-takers met or exceeded the test's college readiness benchmarks. ACT scores are also on the decline year over year, down to 19.4 out of 36, and just 3 in 10 students met at least three of the ACT's college readiness benchmarks.
With that said, attending a quality high school will typically help prepare students for their next steps in life, whether that's college, technical school, or going straight into the workforce. Stacker compiled a list of the best high schools in the Madison metro area using data from Niche, which uses seven weighted factors for its rankings. Most of the score is based on academics, but other factors include culture and diversity; sports; clubs and activities; resources; and surveys of parents, teachers, and students.
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2 / 25#24. Edgerton High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Edgerton School District, WI
- Enrollment: 543 (16:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
LightField Studios // Shutterstock
3 / 25#23. New Glarus High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: New Glarus School District, WI
- Enrollment: 320 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
Achira22 // Shutterstock
4 / 25#22. Lodi High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Lodi School District, WI
- Enrollment: 451 (13:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
Monkey Business Images // Shutterstock
5 / 25#21. DeForest High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: DeForest Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,099 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
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6 / 25#20. East High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Madison Metropolitan School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,649 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
LStockStudio // Shutterstock
7 / 25#19. Lake Mills High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Lake Mills Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 488 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
DenisProduction.com // Shutterstock
8 / 25#18. Belleville High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Belleville School District, WI
- Enrollment: 282 (13:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
sirtravelalot // Shutterstock
9 / 25#17. St. Ambrose Academy
- School type: Private School
- Location: Madison, WI
- Enrollment: 124 (10:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
Joyseulay // Shutterstock
10 / 25#16. Wisconsin Heights High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Wisconsin Heights School District, WI
- Enrollment: 219 (14:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
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11 / 25#15. Cambridge High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Cambridge School District, WI
- Enrollment: 241 (11:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
maroke // Shutterstock
12 / 25#14. Abundant Life Christian School
- School type: Private School
- Location: Madison, WI
- Enrollment: 423 (14:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
Ground Picture // Shutterstock
13 / 25#13. Mount Horeb High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Mount Horeb Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 793 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: B+
GagliardiPhotography // Shutterstock
14 / 25#12. Wisconsin Academy
- School type: Private School
- Location: Columbus, WI
- Enrollment: 72 (6:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A minus
Anna Jurkovska // Shutterstock
15 / 25#11. Monona Grove High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Monona Grove School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,083 (13:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A minus
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Tyler Olson // Shutterstock
16 / 25#10. McFarland High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Mcfarland School District, WI
- Enrollment: 777 (14:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A minus
Monkey Business Images // Shutterstock
17 / 25#9. Oregon High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Oregon School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,269 (14:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A minus
Studio KIWI // Shutterstock
18 / 25#8. Sun Prairie East High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Sun Prairie Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,274 (14:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
ImageFlow // Shutterstock
19 / 25#7. Verona Area High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Verona Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,802 (16:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
Jacob Lund // Shutterstock
20 / 25#6. Vel Phillips Memorial High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Madison Metropolitan School District, WI
- Enrollment: 2,025 (16:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
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Monkey Business Images // Shutterstock
21 / 25#5. Waunakee Community High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Waunakee Community School District, WI
- Enrollment: 1,327 (12:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
LStockStudio // Shutterstock
22 / 25#4. West High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Madison Metropolitan School District, WI
- Enrollment: 2,147 (17:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
Daniel Hoz // Shutterstock
23 / 25#3. Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart
- School type: Private School
- Location: Madison, WI
- Enrollment: 620 (12:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A
SEALANDSKYPHOTO // Shutterstock
24 / 25#2. Middleton High School
- School type: Public School
- Location: Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, WI
- Enrollment: 2,309 (15:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A+
Roman Kosolapov // Shutterstock
25 / 25#1. Madison Country Day School
- School type: Private School
- Location: Waunakee, WI
- Enrollment: 459 (8:1 student to teacher ratio)
- Niche grade: A+
This story features data reporting by Rob Powell, writing by Jill Jaracz, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 97 metros.
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