Best High Schools in Zip Code 01440

ZIP code 01440 covers the city of Gardner, Massachusetts, where two high schools serve a combined 931 students: Gardner High (grades 8–12, 808 students) and Gardner Academy for Learning and Technology (grades 9–12, 123 students), both part of the Gardner district. Gardner High enrolls about 86.8% of the area's high schoolers and Gardner Academy about 13.2%. The district as a whole is rated 326 of 351 districts statewide, at the 7th percentile with 0 stars, and both schools carry that district-level rating. Free/reduced-lunch figures are blank for both schools, so socioeconomic context is not available here, and the spending figures below date to 2020–2021.

Gardner High is the larger school and the stronger performer on most available measures. Its graduation rate is 93.1% against the district's 87.8%, its dropout rate is 3.4% versus 5.5%, and its student-teacher ratio is 13.4. Its statewide rank has climbed from 269 of 348 (23rd percentile, 1 star) in 2023–2024 to 30th percentile, 2 stars, and 246 of 353 in 2025–2026 — still below average, but improving. MCAS scores are mostly above district and below state: in 2025–2026, Science All Grades is 23.95 (district 20.51, state 40.98) and ELA 10th grade is 32.26 (district 28.37, state 45.48). One clear bright spot is 2024–2025 Biology All Grades at 48.28, above both the district's 40.28 and the state's 39.02. Note that because Gardner High includes 8th grade, its "All Grades" results are pulled down by lower 8th-grade scores (ELA 19.16 in 8th grade vs 32.26 in 10th), which can understate how its 10th graders perform.

Gardner Academy shows a much more challenged profile on the limited data available. Its graduation rate is 72.3%, 15.5 points below the district, and its dropout rate is 12.3%, 6.8 points above it. Its student-teacher ratio of 24.7 is nearly 1.8 times Gardner High's 13.4, even though 2020–2021 per-student spending was similar ($14,319 vs $14,661). Its two most recent MCAS results — 10th-grade ELA at 27.27 and mathematics at 18.18 — fall below district (43.03 and 27.61) and state (50.66 and 44.60). Its most recent rank history is from 2017–2018, when it was 338 of 345, 2nd percentile, 0 stars; no current rank is provided, so its present standing cannot be assessed. Parents comparing the two should weigh the sharp differences in graduation, dropout, and class size, while noting the gaps in current data for Gardner Academy.