Schools · Gardner

Gardner, MA schools

Gardner’s public schools score well below Massachusetts’s averages: 29% of students are proficient in reading against 48.5% statewide, and 83% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88.8%. Kids attend Gardner Elementary School through grade 4, then Gardner Middle School and Gardner High.

Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.

C-School Grade #273Best schools in MA (of 282)#240Highest graduation rate in MA (of 275)

TownTapestry School GradeNew

C⁻

Gardner’s School Grade: C-

The public schools Gardner’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 84% of Massachusetts’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.

DTest scoresC-Graduation

Massachusetts school districts we grade (397)Better than 16%

Lower resultsHigher results

Massachusetts towns with similar household incomes (105)Better than 27%

High confidence. Built on 1,090 tested students and a graduating class of 209; ordinary year-to-year swings are unlikely to change the grade.

How the School Grade works

Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Massachusetts’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of Massachusetts only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in Massachusetts with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.