Summary:
ZIP code 01440 covers Gardner, Massachusetts, and contains just one middle school: Gardner Middle School, a 514-student school at 297 Catherine Street serving grades 5 through 7. With only one school in the area, the useful comparisons are school versus district versus state, year over year, and grade versus grade. The school ranks 410 of 478 Massachusetts middle schools in 2025–26 — the 14th percentile, 1 star — down from the 33rd percentile (2 stars) in 2023–24. It sits inside the Gardner district, which itself ranks 326 of 351 (7th percentile, 0 stars).
In 2025–26, proficiency was 16.36% in English language arts, 20.41% in math, and 19.16% in science — roughly 40–50% of the state's levels of 40.03%, 41.11%, and 40.98%. Grade-level results track the district within about one point in every subject and grade, so the school largely mirrors rather than departs from district performance. Bright spots: 5th grade ELA (21.43%) and 5th grade math (19.76%) both edge above their district counterparts, math has come in above district two years running, and 6th grade math (22.22%) is the school's highest 2025–26 figure.
The clearest improvement is ELA, up 2.98 points (13.38% to 16.36%) while the state declined, narrowing the gap to its district from 6.18 to 2.43 points. The clearest concern is science, down 4.96 points (24.12% to 19.16%) — from the school's strongest subject to its weakest, now below district. 6th grade ELA, at 12.72%, is the lowest figure anywhere in the record. Keep in mind that with roughly 170 students per grade, a single percentage point is fewer than two students. Free/reduced-lunch status is unreported, and the spending figure ($15,148) and student–teacher ratio (13.2:1) arrive without benchmarks.
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