Locke Middle, Billerica MA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Locke Middle

Locke Middle School serves students in grades five through seven in Billerica, a predominantly residential suburban town northwest of Boston. The school is one of two middle schools in the Billerica Public Schools district, and it sits within a community that is organized into several distinct village sections, each with its own character. The town itself is car-dependent, with schools and civic facilities spread across separate campuses rather than clustered in a single downtown.

The student body at Locke Middle is predominantly white, with Asian and Hispanic students each making up a notable share of the enrollment. The school serves a mid-sized population for a middle school in its grade band, with enrollment spread fairly evenly across grades five, six, and seven. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as counts for students with disabilities and English learners, was not available in the source data. A parent may want to ask the school directly about these figures to get a fuller picture of the student support context.

On state assessments, Locke Middle posted proficiency rates that placed the school below the midpoint among districts in Middlesex County when looking at overall performance across tested subjects and grades. In the most recent testing year, roughly half of students scored at the proficient level or above in both English language arts and mathematics. Science proficiency was a bit higher, with a little more than half of students meeting the bar. These results represent a notable recovery from a low point a few years earlier, when proficiency in both English and math dropped sharply. Since then, the school has seen a steady upward trend, with math proficiency in particular climbing back to a level that now exceeds the pre-pandemic high. English proficiency has also improved but has not yet returned to its earlier peak. The school's overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects, places it below the midpoint when compared to other districts in Middlesex County.

Locke Middle is a regular public school serving grades five through seven. It is not a charter or magnet school. The school's grade band means it does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism was also not available in the source material.

The school is part of the Billerica Public Schools district, which operates five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school across the town's various village sections. The district did not have any recent parent-relevant changes reported in the source material. Billerica itself is a largely car-dependent suburban town with a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and corporate and industrial campuses. Major employers include technology and defense firms such as E Ink and Raytheon. The town has an MBTA commuter rail station in North Billerica that connects to Boston, and limited local bus service is provided by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority. Housing values in the area are high, and the market has been active, with a median listing price that reflects the broader Middlesex County market.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-851%

School 51% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grades 3-850%

School 50% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grades 3-855%

School 55% · District 45% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolBillerica, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income51%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income42%Higher-income49%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income61%29 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income54%12 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income38%Higher-income54%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income61%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income47%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income42%Higher-income53%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income53%22 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income42%Higher-income54%12 pp gap