Sunderland

In the Sunderland school district in Massachusetts, there is one public school: Sunderland Elementary, an elementary school serving grades PK–6 with 174 students. The district contains this school, so district and school MCAS results are the same. The school has a low student-teacher ratio of 7.1 and spent $23,483 per student in 2020–21. Free/reduced lunch data is blank, so it should not be treated as zero. All-grade MCAS results reflect tested grades, not the full PK–6 enrollment.

Science is the standout subject: in 2025–26, all-grade science proficiency was 50%, above the state’s 40.98%, and it rose from 45.83% the year before. Fifth-grade science was also 50%, above the state’s 43.07%. Mathematics is the clearest weakness: all-grade math fell to 32.1%, compared with the state’s 41.11%—9.01 percentage points below the state and 16.09 points below the school’s 2024–25 result of 48.19%. English Language Arts was mixed: all-grade ELA was 38.75%, slightly below the state’s 40.03% and down from 44.05%, but third-grade ELA was a bright spot at 50%, above the state’s 42.79%. The school’s rank declined from 3 stars / 58th percentile in 2024–25 to 2 stars / 42nd percentile in 2025–26.

The math decline is the dominant story: the school went from 7.45 points above the state in math in 2024–25 to 9.01 points below in 2025–26, a 16.46-point relative swing, while the state math average was essentially flat. Science improved by 4.17 points and stayed 9.02 points above the state, but science is only reported for fifth grade here, so it is a promising but narrow strength. Grade-level performance is uneven: fifth grade had the lowest ELA proficiency at 23.08%, yet 50% in both math and science; fourth-grade math was very low at 23.81%, 19.39 points below the state. With only 174 students PK–6, grade-level percentages can shift substantially with a few students, so single-year swings should be interpreted cautiously, though the all-grade math drop is large enough to be a real concern. The district rank is lower than the latest school rank—32nd percentile for the district vs. 42nd percentile for the school—but both carry 2 stars.