Summary:
The Ayer Shirley School District contains a single middle school — Ayer Shirley Regional Middle School — which serves grades 6 through 8 in Shirley, Massachusetts (01464), with 410 students and a student–teacher ratio of 12.4. Because it is the only middle school in the district, there is no in-district peer to compare it to, so the most useful benchmarks are the district's own averages and the state. The district itself ranks 158 of 351 in Massachusetts, in the 55th percentile, with 3 stars.
Its clearest strengths are Science and Civics. In 2025–2026, all-grades Science was 47.2% proficient, above the district (45.23%) and the state (40.98%) — 6.22 points ahead of the state — and 8th grade Science was 8.27 points above the state. 8th grade Civics came in at 46.77%, essentially matching the district and 7.00 points above the state's 39.77%. 7th grade ELA (44.72%) was 4.81 points above the state, and 7th grade Math (40.98%) was 3.50 points above it. 6th grade ELA also exceeded state results.
Math is the weakest area overall: all-grades Math was 38.64%, below both the district (40.78%) and the state (41.11%), and 6th grade Math was 36.50%, 6.09 points below the state. 8th grade ELA (37.10%) trailed the state by 4.60 points even while edging out the district. Results declined year over year in every comparable subject — ELA down 4.11 points, Math down 1.36, Science down 15.40, and Civics down 5.77 — though Science still finished above the state. The school has earned 3 stars consistently, with percentile ranks of 61, 67, and 62 over the last three years, indicating steady mid-to-upper-middle performance. Note that free/reduced lunch data is not populated, and the $17,653 per-student spending figure is from 2020–2021.
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