Summary:
ZIP code 01984 has one public school, Bessie Buker Elementary, serving grades K–5 in Wenham, Massachusetts, as part of the Hamilton-Wenham district. It enrolls 255 students and has a 2024–25 student-teacher ratio of 14.1:1. The area summary lists 1 elementary school, 0 middle schools, 0 high schools, and 0 alternative schools, so the meaningful comparisons are between this school, its district, and Massachusetts statewide averages.
The school is a top-decile, 5-star school. In 2025–26, it ranked 66th of 899 Massachusetts elementary schools, in the 93rd percentile, after ranking 67th of 906 in 2024–25 and 81st of 916 in 2023–24. The district is also highly ranked at 32nd of 351 districts. On MCAS Next Generation all-grade tests in 2025–26, 68.75% of students were proficient in ELA, 72.41% in mathematics, and 65.79% in science. That compares with district results of 63.35% in ELA, 66.55% in math, and 62.17% in science, and state results of 40.03%, 41.11%, and 40.98%. The school exceeded the district in every reported comparison and was far above the state in every reported area.
Mathematics is a consistent strength: all-grade math was 72.41% in 2025–26 and 72.06% in 2024–25, with grade 3 math at 82.93% and grade 5 math at 76.92%. Grade 3 ELA was also 82.93%. Science was strong in 2024–25 at 79.41% but fell to 65.79% in 2025–26. Grade 4 ELA was the relative soft spot at 58.46%, only 1.69 points above the district’s 56.77% but still 21.03 points above the state’s 37.43%. Per-student spending is listed at $17,531 for 2020–2021, while the free/reduced-lunch percentage is blank in this dataset and should be treated as unknown.
Thank you for your feedback!