Valley Heights

Valley Heights has three schools serving pre-K through grade 12: Valley Heights Elementary - Waterville (pre-K–2), Valley Heights Elementary (grades 3–6), and Valley Heights Junior/Senior High (grades 7–12); together they enroll 398 students. Test results are available for only the latter two schools. Both score-reporting schools were above the state in all three subjects in 2025–26, but the high school’s ELA result was only 2 points above the state.

Valley Heights Elementary led the high school in every subject: its proficiency was 64% in ELA, 65% in math, and 58% in science, compared with 48%, 56%, and 44% at the high school. The elementary school’s advantage was largest in ELA at 16 points; the math and science gaps were 9 and 14 points. SchoolDigger ranks the high school 33rd of 340 schools, at the 90th percentile with five stars, and the elementary school 94th of 657, at the 86th percentile with four stars. Attendance is a concern at Waterville: chronic absenteeism was 22%, versus 15% at the grades 3–6 school and 14% at the high school. The district rate was 16% and the state rate 18%. The high school graduation rate was 92%, 3 points above the state.

Results fell overall from the prior year, although both tested schools remained above state results in all subjects. Their average proficiency across the three subjects declined from 64% to 56%, while the state average was essentially unchanged at 42%; the schools’ average advantage narrowed from 23 points to 14. Science fell by 14 points at the high school and 12 at the elementary school. SchoolDigger’s high-school ranking rose from the 51st percentile in 2023–24 to the 90th in 2025–26 despite recent ELA and science declines; the elementary ranking slipped from the 97th to the 86th percentile. The elementary school also has a higher reported free/reduced-lunch rate (58% versus 39%) and student–teacher ratio (13.3 versus 11.0); these are context measures, not explanations for score differences. The schools serve different grades, so their all-grades scores are not direct same-grade comparisons.