Summary:
North Reading, Massachusetts is served by five public schools — three elementary, one middle, and one high school — educating 2,327 students in total. The North Reading district ranks 33rd of 351 districts statewide, placing it in the 91st percentile with 5 stars. Enrollment is largest at North Reading High (652 students, grades 9–12), followed by North Reading Middle (494, grades 6–8), L D Batchelder (462), J Turner Hood (416), and E Ethel Little School (303). That strong district reputation, however, masks wide differences between individual schools.
L D Batchelder is the clear standout, ranking 14th of 899 elementary schools in 2025–26 (98th percentile, 5 stars). Its scores are exceptional: 91.25% proficient in science — 50.27 points above the state — plus 78.73% in math and 72.85% in ELA, beating the district in every subject despite having the highest student-teacher ratio (14.7) and lowest per-student spending ($16,741) of the five schools. North Reading Middle is the rising star, moving up to 21st of 478 middle schools (96th percentile, 5 stars), with gains in ELA (72.90%), math (75.88%), science (71.51%), and 8th-grade civics (68.16%). Science is its only below-district subject, and that gap has narrowed sharply.
The trends elsewhere are less encouraging. North Reading High remains solid — 98.8% graduation rate and above-district results in every subject — but slipped from 33rd to 47th statewide (4 stars), with 10th-grade ELA, math, and science all down from 2024–25. Meanwhile, E Ethel Little School (123rd of 899) and J Turner Hood (246th of 899) now fall below district averages in all three subjects. Hood's math score of 46.97% is 21.83 points below the district, and both schools saw science drop by more than 20 points in a single year. Note that free/reduced lunch data is unavailable for all schools.
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