Summary:
ZIP code 01226 in Dalton, Massachusetts contains just one public high school — Wahconah Regional High — which serves grades 9–12 and is part of the Central Berkshire district. With 450 students, it's a relatively small high school, which often means smaller classes and more personalized attention; its student-teacher ratio of 10.9 in 2024–2025 supports that picture. The district overall ranks 140 of 351 districts, at the 60th percentile with 3 stars. Because there is only one high school here, there's nothing to compare it with locally — the most useful comparison is against district and state averages.
Graduation outcomes look strong: the 2024–2025 graduation rate was 95.0%, slightly above the district's 94.2%, with a dropout rate of 3.3%, identical to the district. Academically, results are mixed and have shifted recently. In 2024–2025, Wahconah was above the state in all three core 10th-grade MCAS areas — ELA at 52.21% proficient vs. 50.66% statewide, Math at 50.44% vs. 44.60%, and Science at 58.49% vs. 45.89%. In 2025–2026, however, the school fell below the state in ELA (44.12% vs. 45.48%), Math (39.22% vs. 43.73%) and Science (38.71% vs. 40.50%). The year-over-year drops are notable, especially Science, which fell about 19.78 points and moved from well above the state to slightly below it. Biology End-of-Course is a bright spot at 48.25% proficient, 10.57 points above the state's 37.68%.
The school's rank has softened but remains mid-to-upper: 145 of 353 in 2025–2026 (59th percentile, 3 stars), down from 120 of 349 (66th percentile) the prior year. Notably, Wahconah's results generally track its district closely, usually within about 1 percentage point, so its performance largely reflects the Central Berkshire pattern. Some context is missing: free/reduced lunch data is not populated, per-student spending ($17,889) is from 2020–2021, and Biology results cover different grade scopes across years, so those aren't directly comparable.
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