Major Howard W. Beal School

Major Howard W. Beal School is a K–4 elementary school in Shrewsbury, MA, serving 623 students as part of the Shrewsbury district, which ranks 41st of 351 in Massachusetts. The school ranks 141st of 899 Massachusetts elementary schools in 2025–26 — the 84th percentile with 4 stars, its best showing in five years. Within Shrewsbury, though, Beal is 4th of 5 K–4 peers, ahead of Calvin Coolidge School but behind Floral Street School, Spring Street School, and Walter J. Paton School.

On 2025–26 MCAS, 55.34% of Beal students were proficient in ELA and 68.90% in math. Both are above the state (40.03% ELA, 41.11% math), and math is above the district (65.51%) — but ELA trails the district (57.52%). That pattern is persistent: math has topped the district every year in the data, ELA has fallen short every year, a gap of 13.56 points in 2025–26. Grade 4 math is a standout at 72.13%, above both district and state, while Grade 3 results (57.58% ELA, 65.91% math) sit below district averages. The school's rise to its best rank in five years came mostly from an ELA rebound, from 51.27% to 55.34%.

Class sizes have improved: the student-teacher ratio fell from 14.1 in 2022–23 to 12.9 in 2024–25 even though Beal enrolls more students than any listed nearby school. Per-student spending was $17,770 in 2020–21, the highest among nearby schools including its Shrewsbury peers, yet its test scores trail several of them — which does not prove inefficiency but does raise questions about resource allocation. The school's effectiveness varies across student groups, from the 66th percentile for special education students to the 73rd for low-income students. Beal far outpaces most nearby Worcester schools in a district at the 13th percentile; Lake View is the notable exception, close in ELA but still about 19.55 points behind in math. One caveat: free/reduced lunch data was unavailable, and nearby schools serve different grade spans, so comparisons are not perfectly apples-to-apples.