Summary
Jackson Street is a K–5 elementary school in Northampton, MA, enrolling 279 students — the largest of the three Northampton elementaries in this comparison set — and it currently ranks among the stronger elementary schools in Massachusetts. Its story is a decade-long climb: from the 38th percentile statewide in 2015–16 (2 stars) to the low 70s today, ranking 263rd of 899 schools (71st percentile, 4 stars) in 2025–26. That improvement has leveled off into a stable, above-average plateau over the last four years (71, 72, 66, 71). In 2025–26, students scored 52.05% proficient in English Language Arts, 50.00% in math, and 64.15% in science — above both the Northampton district and the state in all three subjects. Note that state rankings are relative, so the 2025–26 rank recovery came even though scores were slightly lower than the year before.
Jackson Street leads every subject among Northampton elementaries — ahead of Leeds, R. K. Finn Ryan Road, and Bridge Street. The contrast with Bridge Street, just 1.24 miles away and nearly the same size, is striking: Jackson Street is ahead by 21.5 points in ELA, 24.2 in math, and 39.2 in science, while Bridge Street has sat at the 26th percentile with 1 star for three straight years. Science is the signature strength — 23.2 points above the state — and Jackson Street beats Crocker Farm Elementary in Amherst by 13.1 points in science even though Crocker Farm spends roughly $8,900 more per student. Jackson Street has the lowest per-student spending and the highest student-to-teacher ratio of the Northampton elementaries in this data, yet the strongest results; that spending data dates to 2020–21, so treat it as suggestive rather than causal.
The most important finding is internal: results differ sharply by student group. Special education students improved dramatically, from the 51st to the 76th percentile over three years (4 stars). Low-income students moved the other way, falling from the 52nd to the 35th to the 16th percentile (1 star) — the most concerning number in the profile. By grade, 4th-grade math (67.44% proficient) is the strongest cell, while 3rd-grade math (37.78%) is the only one below the state average. With roughly 45–50 students per grade, year-to-year swings often reflect cohort differences, and some subgroup data is suppressed because too few students were tested.
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