Summary:
ZIP code 01970 is home to 12 schools — 7 elementary, 1 middle, and 4 high schools — serving roughly 4,939 students across the Salem, Swampscott, and Salem Academy Charter (District) districts, with most schools belonging to Salem. Elementary students make up about 57% of enrollment, high schoolers about 30%, and middle schoolers about 12%. District ratings differ sharply: Swampscott ranks in the 74th percentile with 4 stars, Salem Academy Charter in the 44th percentile with 2 stars, and Salem in the 18th percentile with 1 star.
The clearest standout is Swampscott Elementary School, the only school clearly above the state average in both all-grade ELA (48.88% vs. 40.03%) and math (46.69% vs. 41.11%). Among Salem's traditional elementary schools, Carlton performs best, beating the state in ELA and science, with a notably high 3rd grade ELA score of 56.1%. Salem Academy Charter School has the strongest high school completion outcomes — a 95.6% graduation rate and 0.0% dropout rate — though math is a weak point. Salem High, the largest school with 952 students, has solid graduation and dropout rates but 10th grade scores below state.
Achievement gaps here are wide: Swampscott's ELA proficiency is 31 percentage points above Bentley Academy Innovation School's, and the math gap is about 37 points. Bentley has the lowest ELA, math, and science results in the file and the highest student-teacher ratio at 14.3; Horace Mann Laboratory is also well below state. The two very small high schools differ sharply: New Liberty Innovation School (36 students) has a 23.1% dropout rate, while Salem Prep High School (23 students) reports 0.0%, but both spend far above the median. Note that free/reduced-lunch data is missing for every school, limiting socioeconomic context.
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