Summary:
Peabody, Massachusetts serves about 5,774 students across 11 schools — eight elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one alternative program — and the Peabody district overall ranks 266th of 351 in the state, at the 24th percentile with a 1-star rating. That district-level rating hides wide differences among individual schools: some Peabody elementaries outperform the state, while others sit near the bottom.
Three elementary schools are the clear standouts. West Memorial (294 students, 65th percentile, 3 stars) posts 51.30% ELA, 51.72% math, and 42.86% science — all above the state's 40.03%, 41.11%, and 40.98% — and climbed from the 49th to the 65th percentile over three years. South Memorial (506 students, 64th percentile, 3 stars) leads the elementary group in science at 56.67% and rose from the 40th to the 64th percentile. John E Burke (294 students, 58th percentile, 3 stars) is above the state in all three subjects. Center, a small school of 123, beats the state in science only. By contrast, J Henry Higgins Middle is below both district and state in every subject (27.38% ELA, 28.51% math, 25.76% science) and has slipped from the 44th to the 32nd percentile, while Peabody Veterans Memorial High is far below state test scores but has a 90.7% graduation rate and a 4.1% dropout rate, both better than the district's.
Several schools need attention. William A Welch Senior (14th percentile), Thomas Carroll (16th), and Captain Samuel Brown (18th, with the lowest science score at 13.73%) are consistently low across subjects, and Peabody Personalized Remote Education Program (Peabody P.R.E shows severe gaps: a 45.5% graduation rate, a 38.6% dropout rate, and 0% math proficiency. Notably, Captain Samuel Brown has the lowest student/teacher ratio (9.8) and the highest per-student spending ($17,900) among elementaries, yet outcomes still lag — resources alone do not explain results. Free/reduced-lunch data is blank for every school here, so economic context cannot be assessed.
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