Summary:
Petersham, Massachusetts is served by a single school: Petersham Center, an elementary school covering grades K–6 with 142 students at 31 Spring Street, and it is also the only school in the Petersham district, so families here have one local public option rather than a choice among several schools. Because there is nothing else in the area to compare it with, the most useful comparison is with statewide averages — and by that measure the school looks strong, with its district ranked 106 of 351 in Massachusetts, in the 70th percentile with 4 stars.
In 2025–2026, Petersham Center students scored 56.58% proficient in English Language Arts versus 40.03% statewide, 51.32% in Mathematics versus 41.11%, and 60% in Science versus 40.98%. The school has also been climbing in the rankings, moving from the 50th percentile with 3 stars in 2023–2024 to the 64th percentile in 2024–2025 and the 70th percentile with 4 stars in 2025–2026. Class sizes are small, with a student-teacher ratio of 11.3 in 2024–2025, and per-student spending was $18,199 in 2020–2021. The free/reduced-lunch percentage was not reported in the supplied data.
Grade-level results show the school's strength is concentrated in the upper grades. In 2025–2026, grade 6 ELA was 77.78% versus 40.26% statewide and grade 6 Mathematics was 72.22% versus 42.59%; grade 5 also beat the state in ELA (65% vs 38.15%), Mathematics (55% vs 39.50%), and Science (60% vs 43.07%). Grades 3 and 4 are more mixed: grade 4 ELA was essentially at the state level, and grade 3 and grade 4 Mathematics were slightly below state. Science remains a relative strength but slipped from 76.19% to 60%, while all-grades Mathematics improved from 45.12% to 51.32%. With only 142 students, a single class cohort can move these percentages noticeably, so year-to-year swings should be read with that in mind.
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