High Schools in Amesbury

Amesbury, Massachusetts is served by two public high schools in the Amesbury district, both covering grades 9–12: Amesbury High, with 481 students, and Amesbury Innovation High School, with just 50. Together they enroll about 531 high school students, so Amesbury High holds roughly 90.6% of that total and is about 9.6 times larger than its counterpart. The district overall is ranked 245 of 351 statewide, at the 30th percentile with 2 stars.

Amesbury High stands out positively. It ranks 116 of 353 schools for 2025–2026 — the 67th percentile with 3 stars — and has held steady between the 66th and 70th percentile across three years. Its 2025–2026 MCAS proficiency rates beat both the district and the state in every reported subject: ELA 10th at 48.65%, Math 10th at 50.45%, Science 10th at 51.4%, and Biology end-of-course at 46.32%. Its graduation rate is 85.5%, above the district's 82.1%. Amesbury Innovation High School is a stark contrast: ranked 345 of 353, the 2nd percentile with 0 stars, and reporting 0% proficiency in 10th-grade ELA and Math and 10% in Biology. Only one year of rank data is available for it, so no trend can be measured.

Operational numbers tell a more mixed story. Amesbury Innovation reports an 82.4% graduation rate — just above the district's 82.1% — and a 0.0% dropout rate versus the district's 0.7%. Its student/teacher ratio of 8.6 is lower than Amesbury High's 10.8, and it spends $23,081 per pupil in 2020–2021 versus $18,891, about 22.2% more. That higher spending does not align with higher test outcomes, though small schools often carry higher per-pupil costs and the spending figures are dated. Free/reduced lunch data is blank for both schools, limiting socioeconomic comparisons. With only 50 students at Amesbury Innovation, rates can swing widely, so its test results should be read with caution.