Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed is a K–5 elementary school on Main Street in Leominster, Massachusetts, serving 692 students as part of the Leominster district — a district that ranks in the bottom third of the state, while the school itself ranks 377th of 899 elementary schools statewide (58th percentile, 3 stars) in 2025–2026. That gap is the headline: this is a school performing meaningfully above its own district's standing, and 2025–2026 is its strongest year since 2015–2016.

Locally, Johnny Appleseed is the second-strongest of Leominster's K–5 campuses, behind only Fall Brook and well ahead of Frances Drake School and Northwest. Fall Brook beats it clearly in ELA and math, but in science the two are level, with Johnny Appleseed slightly ahead (50.93% vs. 49.55%) — the top science proficiency in the comparison set, and about 10 points above the state. It also outperforms every adjacent-district school in the set except Turkey Hill Elementary School in math, even though the Lunenburg and Ayer Shirley School District districts rank higher overall. The nearby Fitchburg schools, Reingold Elementary and McKay Elementary School, sit far lower, at the 9th and 13th percentiles.

One unusual pattern stands out: most student groups rank at or above the school's own 58th percentile — low-income students at 87th, Hispanic students and English learners at 80th, and African American students at 93rd (5 stars) for three consecutive years — while special education students lag at the 48th percentile (2 stars), the clearest improvement priority. The school achieves this on lean spending: $14,156 per student, less than Frances Drake School and Lura A. White Elementary School, both of which post lower ELA proficiency. Grade 3 is the thinnest area, essentially even with the state in ELA and math, while Grade 4 math and Grade 5 ELA and science lead. The open question is whether this year's gains hold, since a similar high point in 2015–2016 was followed by a six-year slide.