Summary:
The Gill-Montague district in rural western Massachusetts serves about 431 elementary students across three schools — Sheffield Elementary School (grades 2–5, enrollment 199), Hillcrest Elementary School (PK–1, enrollment 122), and Gill Elementary (K–6, enrollment 110). The district as a whole ranks 285 of 351 districts statewide, at the 19th percentile with 1 star, but that average conceals a wide gap between its schools.
Gill Elementary is the standout, ranking 402 of 899 schools in 2025–2026 (55th percentile, 3 stars) and holding 3 stars for three straight years. Its all-grade proficiency was 43.08% in ELA, 39.39% in math, and 55% in science — above the district in every subject and above the state in ELA and science. Its weakest spot is grade 4, where ELA was 18.75% and math 17.65%. By contrast, Sheffield Elementary School — the largest school — ranks 812 of 899 (10th percentile, 0 stars), down from 23rd percentile in 2023–2024. Its proficiency was 21.64% in ELA, 14.18% in math, and 11.76% in science, with grade 5 at just 8.57% in ELA and math. Because Sheffield enrolls the most students, its results likely weigh heavily on the district average.
Hillcrest Elementary School serves only PK–1, so it has no MCAS scores or ranking to compare; it does have the lowest student-teacher ratio (8.5) and highest per-student spending ($26,018, 2020–2021). Notably, Gill Elementary has the highest ratio (10.7) and lowest spending ($21,412) yet the strongest outcomes, though spending data and test years do not align. Free/reduced-lunch figures are blank for all three schools, so economic context cannot be assessed.
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