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Education in Madison

Madison is well-known as a community with exceptional educational resources and is home to three universities and colleges—Drew University (www.drew.edu), Fairleigh Dickinson University’s College of Florham at Madison (www.fdu.edu) and the College of St. Elizabeth (www.cse.edu).

Each of these colleges offers a full range of undergraduate liberal arts, pre-professional and professional majors, as well as daytime, evening, and weekend graduate courses and degree programs. Students enrolled at any one are allowed to take certain courses at the other two. As well, Drew allows high school students to enroll and receive university credit for courses on a space available basis.

The Madison School District is well regarded for its broad-based curriculum, statewide rankings, and the high level of individual support given each student. Almost 75 percent of faculty members possess advanced degrees and 90 percent of Madison High School graduates attend institutions of higher learning with many admitted to the nation’s most prestigious universities.

The district is comprised of three elementary schools, Kings Road, Central Avenue and Torey J. Sabatini, each of which will become K-5 in fall 2008. Class size ranges from 19-22 students and kindergarten sections may run as low as 16-20 students. All elementary students begin Spanish lessons in the first grade and instrumental music starts in fourth grade.

Madison Junior School will house grades six through eight beginning Fall 2008. Its full slate of core academic, athletic and performing arts programs include French, Spanish, Italian, and German, all beginning in seventh grade.

Award-winning music and performing arts programs at the junior school and high school include full concert, strings, orchestra and choral programs, jazz bands at each school plus Cajun Zydeco and Dixieland bands at the high school. The annual high school community musical involves 250 students.

Madison High School is often cited in statewide and national rankings. In 2007, for example, MHS students captured the New Jersey Physics Olympics title. There were 14 national merit commendation scholars, three national merit finalists, and one of 10 national Intel Science Search Scholars. Athletic programs include 21 boys, girls and co-ed sports. In 2006-07, MHS athletes won the statewide field hockey championship, a state playoff standing in boys’ soccer, a tournament standing in girls’ volleyball and ice hockey, along with the boys’ conference championship in wrestling.

The high school student body includes students from adjacent Harding Township (New Vernon) through a receiving relationship, as the Harding schools operate only through eighth grade.

In addition to the public schools, Madison has private nursery schools, Montessori pre-schools and kindergartens, and an award-winning parochial elementary school, St. Vincent Martyr School (www.rosenet.org/svm). At the secondary level are The Darcy School and St. Elizabeth Convent School at Convent Station.

Other educational offerings are available through the Adult School of Madison, Chatham and Florham Park and the Madison Public Library (www.rosenet.org/library), via a partnership in which Drew University faculty teach adult “mini courses” at the library.