Summary:
There is one high school in the Palmer area: Palmer High, a grade 7–12 school with 416 students at 4105 Main Street in Palmer, MA. Because it serves grades 7 through 12, its "All Grades" MCAS results blend middle-school and high-school performance, which is worth keeping in mind when comparing it with state figures. The Palmer district is ranked 296th of 351 in Massachusetts (16th percentile, 1 star), and Palmer High's 2025–2026 school rank is 265th of 353 (25th percentile, 1 star). Rank history has been uneven: 13th percentile in 2023–2024, 44th percentile with 2 stars in 2024–2025, then 25th percentile with 1 star in 2025–2026.
On test scores, math is the relative bright spot. All Grades math proficiency was 32.46%, above the district's 28.24% and 8.65 points below the state; 7th-grade math (35.71% vs. 37.48% statewide) came within 1.77 points of the state average, the closest any reported result comes. ELA lags further behind: 22.4% at All Grades, barely above the district but 17.63 points below the state. Science is the clearest weakness, and 10th-grade science in particular: 12% proficient against 40.5% statewide, a 28.5-point gap and the lowest proficiency figure reported for the school. Proficiency declined in every reported subject from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026 — ELA down 10.23 percentage points, civics 6.22, science 5.81, and math 1.93.
Outcomes beyond testing look stronger. Palmer High's 2024–2025 graduation rate was 96.1%, above the district's 94.9%, with a 0.0% dropout rate. The student-teacher ratio was 8.8 students per teacher, and per-pupil spending was $17,532 in 2020–2021, though the free/reduced-lunch figure is blank, so socioeconomic context isn't available from this data.
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