Summary:
ZIP code 01984 is home to a single elementary school: Bessie Buker Elementary, a K–5 school in Wenham, Massachusetts serving 255 students as part of the Hamilton-Wenham district. Because there is only one elementary school here, the most useful comparisons are against district and state benchmarks rather than against other local schools.
Bessie Buker is a high-performing, top-decile school. It ranked 66th of 899 ranked Massachusetts elementary schools in 2025–2026 (93rd percentile, 5 stars), 67th of 906 the year before, and 81st of 916 the year before that — consistently in the top 7–9% statewide with 5-star ratings each year. The district itself ranks 32nd of 351 districts (91st percentile, 5 stars). In 2025–2026 MCAS testing, the school exceeded both district and state in every reported subject and grade: all-grades proficiency was 68.75% in English Language Arts, 72.41% in Mathematics, and 65.79% in Science, with Math running 31.30 percentage points above the state. Grade 3 was the strongest level, reaching 82.93% in both ELA and Math; Grade 4 was the lowest at 58.46% in ELA and 63.08% in Math, though still above benchmarks.
A few points for parents to keep in mind. Science fell from 79.41% to 65.79% year over year, a notable decline, but it still beats the district and state — ELA and Math were stable to slightly improved over the same period. The student-teacher ratio is 14.1 students per teacher. Per-student spending of $17,531 is from 2020–2021, so it is historical context rather than a current resource measure. The free/reduced-lunch percentage is not provided in this data, so socioeconomic context cannot be assessed from it.
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