Talbot Innovation School

Talbot Innovation School is a grades 6–8 middle school serving 582 students in Fall River, Massachusetts, a city district that ranks 331st of 351 districts statewide. In 2025–26 the school placed 401st of 478 middle schools in Massachusetts — the 16th percentile, or 1 star — a low statewide standing, but the best rank and percentile in its ten-year record and higher than its own district's overall position. Proficiency sits at 18.73% in English language arts, 19.81% in math, 15.29% in science and 11.76% in civics: at or slightly above district results, but roughly half the state rate in ELA and math.

The encouraging story here is the direction of travel. Math proficiency has risen in each of the last four reported years, from 11.90% to 19.81%; science has more than doubled, from 6.25% to 15.29%, putting it level with the district; ELA dipped slightly to 18.73% in 2025–26 after three years of gains. Talbot is the highest-ranked of Fall River's three middle schools, ahead of Morton Middle and Matthew J Kuss Middle, and leads both in math, science and civics. Its strongest single result is 8th-grade math at 24.12% proficient, nearly 10 points above the district's 8th grade and more than double Kuss's 10.50%. English learners are a standout: that group climbed to the 59th percentile statewide, 3 stars, the only Talbot subgroup above the state median.

Compared with nearby suburban middle schools, Talbot's results look very different. Dartmouth Middle, Somerset Middle School and others a few miles away post ELA proficiency in the 36–50% range against Talbot's 18.73%, with civics scores of 39–57% against Talbot's 11.76%. Its closest match is New Bedford's urban middle schools such as Keith Middle School. Talbot also spends $18,013 per student (2020–21), the most of the 11 schools compared, while Berkley Middle School spends $12,426 and scores far higher in every subject. Its student-to-teacher ratio rose from 9.9 to 12.0 in two years.