Gardner

The Gardner school district in Massachusetts consists of 4 schools, including 1 elementary school, 1 middle school, and 2 high schools (one of which is an alternative school). The data reveals some standout schools and key insights about the district's academic performance, graduation rates, and resource allocation.

Gardner High School stands out as the top-performing school in the district, ranking 235 out of 349 Massachusetts high schools and earning a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger. The school boasts a relatively high 4-year graduation rate of 85.9% and a dropout rate of 8.2%, and its students perform better than the district and state averages on MCAS Next Generation tests, particularly in 10th-grade English Language Arts. In contrast, Gardner Academy for Learning and Technology, an alternative high school, has a lower student enrollment and a lower ranking (338 out of 345 Massachusetts high schools), but maintains a similar graduation and dropout rate as Gardner High School.

The data also reveals a significant performance disparity between the elementary/middle schools and the high schools in the district. Gardner Elementary School and Gardner Middle School have MCAS Next Generation proficiency rates that are significantly below the state averages in both English Language Arts and Mathematics, suggesting a need for improvement in the earlier grades. The district's spending per student is relatively consistent across the schools, ranging from $14,319 to $15,847 per student, but the student-teacher ratios vary, with Gardner Elementary School having the highest ratio at 17.9 and Gardner Academy for Learning and Technology having the lowest at 23.0.