Madison High School is a four-year public high school serving students in ninth to twelfth grades in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Madison Public Schools. The school is located entirely in the borough of Madison. Students from Harding Township attend the school as part of a sending/receiving relationship.Madison High School 2016-17 Report Card Narrative, New Jersey Department of Education. Accessed February 13, 2018. "Madison High School also enjoys the benefits of our sending-receiving relationship with Harding Township, a nearby K-8 school district. Students from Harding and Madison become a cohesive class in their four years together."
As of the 2024–25 school year, the school had an enrollment of 761 students and 70.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.9:1. There were 69 students (9.1% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 10 (1.3% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.School data for Madison High School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 15, 2026. More than 90% of the district's graduates move on to a four-year college, with half of those attending highly competitive schools.
History The school, constructed at a cost of $2.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ), opened in September 1958 with an enrollment of 630 students who pledged to ensure that the new building would be kept safe from vandalism.via Associated Press. "Students Pledge to Guard School", Asbury Park Press, September 10, 1958. Accessed March 15, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "The 630 students at the newly opened Madison High School have taken a pledge to protect the $2,500,000 building against vandalism."School Profile 2021-2022, Madison High School. Accessed March 15, 2022. "The building was opened in 1958 and expanded several times throughout the years."
In May 1974, the Harding Township School District was given permission by the State Commissioner of Education to end their sending / receiving relationship with the Morris School District at Morristown High School and begin sending their students to Madison High School starting with the 1975–76 school year, ruling that the withdrawal of the mostly white students from Harding Township would not "cause a disproportionate change in the racial composition of Morristown High School"."Commissioner Reverses Plan for Morris Schools", The New York Times, May 2, 1974. Accessed November 9, 2017. "Contending that it would not significantly 'cause a disproportionate change in the racial composition of Morristown High School,' the state's Acting Commissioner of Education, Edward W. Kilpatrick today allowed Harding Township to send its high school students to. Madison High School rather than to Morristown after June 1975.... In 1971, during the time the regionalization of the Morris districts was pending before the Commissioner, Harding Township, an affluent semirural town of three‐acre‐minimum residential zones, petitioned the county superintendent to allow sending of high school pupils to the smaller Madison High School with a much smaller black population. Subsequently, Harding began to send its ninth graders to Madison despite objections from Morristown."Staff. "Morristown High School Closed After Racial Fight", The New York Times, May 7, 1974. Accessed November 9, 2017. "Morristown High School has about 400 black students, most of them from Morristown. Most of the high school student from Morris Township, Morris Plains, and Harding Township are white. Morristown and Morris Township were forced to merge their school systems two years ago to advance racial integration. Last week Harding Township was given permission by the State Education Commissioner to withdraw its students from Morristown High and send them to Madison High."
Awards, recognition and rankings The school was the 32nd-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology.Staff. "Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014", New Jersey Monthly, September 2, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2014. The school had been ranked 6th in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 15th in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.Staff. "The Top New Jersey High Schools: Alphabetical", New Jersey Monthly, August 16, 2012. Accessed August 24, 2012. The magazine ranked the school 35th in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools and was ranked 48th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which included 316 schools across the state."Top New Jersey High Schools 2008: By Rank", New Jersey Monthly, September 2008, posted August 7, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2008.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school 66th out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (a decrease of 33 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the mathematics (88.9%) and language arts literacy (98.0%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2010-2011, Schooldigger.com. Accessed February 27, 2012.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 38th in New Jersey and 1,208th nationwide.Mathews, Jay. "The High School Challenge 2011: Madison High School", The Washington Post. Accessed August 17, 2011.
In its 2013 report on "America's Best High Schools", The Daily Beast ranked the school 296th in the nation among participating public high schools and 24th among schools in New Jersey.Streib, Lauren. "America's Best High Schools" , The Daily Beast, May 6, 2013. Accessed May 8, 2013.
In its listing of "America's Best High Schools 2016", the school was ranked 115th out of 500 best high schools in the country; it was ranked 22nd among all high schools in New Jersey and ninth among the state's non-magnet schools.Staff. "America's Best High Schools 2016", Newsweek. Accessed November 11, 2016.
Academic offerings Madison High School offers four world languages (Spanish, French, and Italian, and new in the 2009–10 school year, Mandarin), in addition to a full array of academic majors in English, History, Mathematics and Science. A selection of Studio Art courses are also offered. Among the Advanced Placement courses offered are AP English Literature and Composition, AP English Language and Composition, AP US History, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Spanish, AP French, AP Italian, AP Chinese, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Environmental Science, AP Studio Art, and AP Music Theory.Madison High School Facts About Our School, Madison Public Schools. Accessed November 2, 2018.
Extracurricular activities The school offers the Personal Development Program in addition to the Peer Group Connections Program, a freshman orientation, and guidance program led by upperclassmen. The music program includes an orchestra, concert band, chorus, jazz band and chorus, guitar ensemble, show band, marching band and musical theater.
Athletics The Madison High School DodgersMadison High School, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. compete in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Morris, Sussex and Warren counties, and was established following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2009 realignment, the school had participated in the Suburban Division of the Northern Hills Conference, which included schools in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties.Home Page, Northern Hills Conference, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 28, 2011. Accessed December 15, 2014. With 666 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Group II for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 486 to 758 students in that grade range.NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020. The football team competes in the American Blue division of the North Jersey Super Football Conference, which includes 112 schools competing in 20 divisions, making it the nation's biggest football-only high school sports league.Cooper, Darren. "Here's what we know about the new Super Football Conference 2020 schedule", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference (SFC) is a 112-team group, the largest high school football-only conference in America, and is comprised of teams from five different counties."Cooper, Darren. "NJ football: Super Football Conference revised schedules for 2020 regular season", The Record, July 23, 2020. Accessed March 22, 2021. "The Super Football Conference has 112 teams that will play across 20 divisions." The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Group II North for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 484 to 683 students.NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2024–2026, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024.
Madison High School offers dozens of clubs and 23 interscholastic sports, most notably including its field hockey and boys' lacrosse teams. Madison has a Sportexe "PowerBlade" artificial turf field that was completed in September 2006, and publicly unveiled the following day in a varsity football game against their division rival Delbarton School.
The boys' baseball team won the North II Group II state sectional championship in 1963 and the North II Group III state sectional championship in 1968.Baseball Championship History: 1959–2024, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, updated September 2024. Accessed September 1, 2024. The team won the North II, Group II sectional championship in 2012, defeating Bernards High School by a score of 5–2 in the tournament final.Bernstein, Jason. "Bernards (2) at Madison (5), NJSIAA Tournament, Final Round, North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 - Baseball", NJ.com, June 1, 2012, updated August 23, 2013. Accessed February 7, 2016. "Connor Higgins pitched a complete game and Joe Grato and Cameron Dias teamed up to reach base seven times as Madison captured its first state sectional title since 1986 after defeating Bernards, 5-2, in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 final Friday in Madison."