Summary:
The two elementary schools in 02871 are in Portsmouth: Howard Hathaway School serves kindergarten through fourth grade and has 409 students, while Melville School serves prekindergarten through fourth grade and has 316. Both schools’ 2025–26 results are well above state results: Howard is 23 percentage points higher in all-grades ELA and 29 points higher in math, while Melville is 36 and 35 points higher, respectively. The most important finding is that even the lower-scoring of the two schools substantially outperforms the state in both subjects.
Melville stands out for achievement, leading Howard Hathaway in both all-grades subjects and every reported grade-and-subject comparison. Its all-grades scores are 69% in ELA and 67% in math, compared with Howard’s 56% and 61%—gaps of 13 points in ELA and 6 in math. Melville’s same-grade leads range from 5 points in fourth-grade math to 15 points in fourth-grade ELA. SchoolDigger ranks Melville 14th of 163 Rhode Island elementary schools, with five stars, and Howard 25th of 163, with four stars.
Recent results show declines in three of four school-subject comparisons, with Melville’s math the exception. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, Howard’s ELA fell from 58% to 56% and math from 67% to 61%; Melville’s ELA fell from 72% to 69%, while math rose from 66% to 67%. The schools also differ in context: Melville’s student-teacher ratio is 12.1, versus 13.6 at Howard, and its free/reduced-lunch rate is 16%, versus 24%; reported per-student spending was $20,918 at Melville and $17,272 at Howard. SchoolDigger rankings have shifted over time: Howard was 29th in 2023–24, 17th in 2024–25, and 25th in 2025–26, while Melville moved from 7th in both earlier years to 14th. These figures describe two schools and do not show that spending, class size, or lunch rates explain achievement.
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