Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 01540

ZIP code 01540 covers Oxford, Massachusetts, and contains a single middle school: Oxford Middle, located at 497 Main Street and serving grades 6–8 with about 385 students, or roughly 128 per grade. Because it is the only middle school in the area, the most useful comparisons are between the school and its district, Oxford, and the state of Massachusetts. The school holds a 2-star rating and a 35th percentile rank (312 of 478 Massachusetts middle schools) in 2025–2026, while the district as a whole is rated 1 star at the 25th percentile. That is a meaningful gap: Oxford Middle outperforms its own district's grade-level results in 8 of 9 reported grade and subject checkpoints, with 7th-grade ELA essentially a tie.

Against the state, however, the school trails in every subject. In 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency was 31.1% in English Language Arts, 24.77% in Mathematics, 25% in Science, and 33% in 8th-grade Civics, compared with state rates near 40–41%. ELA is the relative bright spot, and its three grade levels are tightly clustered (29.7–32.0), suggesting consistent literacy instruction. Math is the clearest concern: proficiency falls from 37.25 in 6th grade to 21.6 in 7th and 16 in 8th, a 21.25-point slide within the same building, with the sharpest drop at the 6th-to-7th transition. The same 8th-grade cohort scores 33 in Civics but 16 in Math — a 17-point spread that points to subject-specific issues rather than a single weak class.

Year-over-year results are mixed. Math improved by 3.54 points and narrowed its gap to the state, while Science fell 4.77 points and widened its gap. ELA was essentially flat, and the school's rank has barely moved in three years (314, 309, 312), indicating it is tracking statewide trends rather than diverging from them. Resources look solid — a 10:1 student–teacher ratio and $16,331 per student in 2020–2021 — but the free/reduced-lunch figure is not available, so economic context cannot be assessed. For parents, the takeaways are that this school generally outperforms its district, literacy is a strength, and upper-grade math and science deserve the closest attention.