Summary:
Johnston, Rhode Island, has five elementary schools: four serving grades 1–5, with Sarah Dyer Barnes School also serving kindergarten, and a kindergarten-only Early Childhood Center. Four schools report 2025–2026 test results; the Early Childhood Center has no supplied scores. Across the four scored schools, average proficiency is below the state rate in ELA, math, and science, with the largest average shortfall in math: 10.5 percentage points.
Brown Avenue School stands out in ELA, leading the four schools at 27.5%, while Thornton School leads math at 30.0% and science at 27.6%. Both are close to the statewide math rate of 31.9%. At the lower end, Winsor Hill School has the lowest ELA result, 19.4%, and Sarah Dyer Barnes School has the lowest math and science results, 12.2% and 17.0%. The widest school-to-school spread is in math: Thornton is 17.8 points ahead of Barnes. Grade-level results offer some bright spots: Brown Avenue exceeds the state rate in grade 4 ELA and grade 5 math, while Thornton exceeds it in grade 3 math.
Recent results are mixed, but the four-school average fell in all three subjects from 2024–2025, most sharply in math, down 7.9 points. Brown Avenue’s math result fell 17.7 points, while Thornton improved 4.7 points; Winsor Hill gained 5.5 points in science, and Barnes declined in all three subjects. SchoolDigger ranks Brown Avenue highest among these schools at 103 of 163 statewide, just ahead of Thornton at 106; Barnes ranks 141 and Winsor Hill 132. Those rankings have shifted over three years: Thornton’s percentile rose from 25 to 35, while Brown Avenue’s fell from 60 to 37. Ratios are similar, ranging from 10.9 students per teacher at Thornton to 11.9 at Brown Avenue; reported free/reduced-lunch rates range from 43.03% at Brown Avenue to 68.82% at Thornton, providing context rather than an explanation for results.
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