Elementary Schools in Reading

Reading, Massachusetts has five K–5 elementary schools — J Warren Killam, Joshua Eaton, Alice M Barrows, Birch Meadow, and Wood End Elementary School — serving 1,754 students within the high-performing Reading district, which ranks 43rd of 351 districts statewide (88th percentile, 4 stars). All five schools exceed state averages in ELA, Math, and Science in 2025–2026, so families here are choosing among strong options.

Joshua Eaton is the clear standout, with all-grade proficiency of 79.19% in ELA, 76.65% in Math, and 77.78% in Science — roughly 18, 12, and 12 points above the district. It ranks 16th of 899 schools (98th percentile, 5 stars) and climbed from 92nd to 83rd to 16th over three years. Alice M Barrows is the most balanced high performer after Eaton, above district in all three subjects and ranked 120th (87th percentile); its 5th-grade Math score of 85.48% is the highest grade-level math result in the group, though 3rd-grade ELA (46.27%) trails the district. Wood End Elementary School, the smallest at 236 students, is the most volatile: Math (72.73%) and Science (70.97%) beat district averages while ELA (55.45%) falls below, and its +14.88-point Math gain is the largest single-subject improvement in the data.

J Warren Killam, the largest school at 406 students, is strongest in Science (68.42%, above district) but below district in ELA and Math. Birch Meadow posts the lowest results of the five and has declined in rank for three straight years (185th → 220th → 239th), dropping in all three subjects from 2024–2025; it remains above state averages, but its ELA (53.55%) trails Eaton's by about 25.6 points. Notably, Birch Meadow has the highest per-student spending ($17,870) and lowest student-teacher ratio (10.7), while Eaton has the lowest spending and highest ratio — so resources do not track outcomes in this group, and free/reduced-lunch data is unavailable.