Halstead

The Halstead area has three schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12: Bentley Primary School (PK–3), Halstead Middle School (grades 4–8) and Halstead High (grades 8–12); together, they enroll 786 students. In 2025–26, all three schools’ all-grade math proficiency rates exceeded the state’s 41%, while ELA results ranged from above the state at Bentley and Middle to below it at High. The most important takeaway is that school and subject matter: Halstead’s results are not uniform, with a 19-point gap between Bentley and High in ELA.

Bentley leads the reported all-grade ELA and math results: 57% in ELA and 55% in math, respectively 11 and 14 points above state rates. Middle is in between in ELA (48%) and math (48%), and leads reported science at 53%, 15 points above the state. High has the lowest all-grade ELA rate at 38%, 8 points below the state; its 42% math rate is just 1 point above. Grade-level results add important contrasts: Middle’s grade 6 math is 67%, 26 points above the state, but its grade 4 math is 7 points below. High’s grade 10 math and grade 11 science are above their same-grade state results.

Recent trends favor math overall, but vary by school. The three-school math average rose 6 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, compared with a 2-point state increase, widening the group’s advantage from 4 to 7 points. The ELA average rose only slightly as the state rate increased more, narrowing the group’s advantage from 3 to 2 points; Bentley’s gains contrasted with High’s 9-point ELA decline. SchoolDigger’s statewide ranking improved steadily for Middle, from 151st to 118th over three years, while High improved to 75th and then moved back to 104th. Context also differs: student-teacher ratios are 10.7 at Bentley and High and 13.5 at Middle. High’s graduation rate was 97%, above the state’s 90%, despite its lower ELA result; these measures describe different aspects of school outcomes.