Bennington Elementary School

Bennington Elementary School is a public elementary school serving grades PK-5 in Bennington, Vermont, with 271 students. The school is part of the Southwest Vermont Union Elementary School District #87, which is ranked 67 out of 72 districts in the state and has a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Bennington Elementary School consistently ranks among the lowest-performing elementary schools in Vermont, with rankings between 132-147 out of 133-148 schools in recent years. Its performance on standardized tests is significantly below the state averages across all grade levels and subject areas. For example, in the 2023-2024 school year, only 10.81% of 3rd-grade students were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to the state average of 48%. In mathematics, the proficiency rate for 3rd-grade students was 13.51%, compared to the state average of 35%. The school's performance is particularly low for specific student subgroups, ranking 55th out of 55 Vermont elementary schools for female students and 55th out of 56 for male students in terms of academic performance.

Bennington Elementary School has an exceptionally high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 65.71% to 89.3% in recent years, which is significantly higher than the nearby schools in the district, such as Pownal Elementary (78.54%) and Shaftsbury Elementary (63.56%). The school also has a relatively high student-teacher ratio, ranging from 15.9 to 19.8 in recent years, which is higher than the nearby schools in the district. While Bennington Elementary School is the lowest-performing school in the district, the other nearby schools in the Southwest Vermont Union Elementary School District #87 also struggle academically, suggesting that systemic challenges may be contributing to the low performance across the region.