The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in Science. The lowest is 55% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Henderson K-12 Inclusion School Lower
Henderson K-12 Inclusion School Lower is a regular public school in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, serving children from pre-kindergarten through first grade. It is part of the Boston Public Schools system. The school’s name signals a focus on inclusive education, where students with and without disabilities learn together, though no specific data on special education enrollment or program details was available for this profile.
The school is small, with an enrollment that is modest for an early-elementary building. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse. Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white students are each represented in substantial proportions, and a smaller share of students identify as two or more races. Information on the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not provided, nor were counts of English learners or students with individualized education programs. Parents who want to understand the school’s support for those populations may wish to ask the school directly.
State testing results exist only from several years ago and should be interpreted with caution. The most recent available data is from the school year that ended in 2016, when the school administered the PARCC assessment to third graders. At that time, more than half of tested students scored proficient or above in both math and English language arts. A science assessment from an even earlier year also showed a majority of fifth graders at the proficiency mark. However, the school no longer serves third or fifth grade—it now ends at first grade—so those results reflect a different grade configuration than the current one. Because the data is both old and from a different set of grade levels, it offers a limited picture of the school’s current academic performance. A parent should look into whether more recent or more relevant assessment information is available from the school or district.
Despite the age of the test data, the overall proficiency index—a composite of the available subject scores—placed the school in the top quartile relative to districts in Suffolk County. That comparison is based on a single-year snapshot from roughly a decade ago and may not hold today, but it suggests that when the school was tested at those grade levels, its students performed well compared to others across the county.
The school is located on Dorchester Avenue, the main commercial spine of Dorchester, a neighborhood that is Boston’s largest and most diverse. Dorchester is a dense urban area with a mix of residential streets, apartment buildings, and commercial squares such as Fields Corner, Uphams Corner, and Codman Square. The neighborhood is well served by public transit: the MBTA Red Line runs through it with multiple stations, and the Mattapan Trolley extends from Ashmont. Many residents are foreign-born, and a wide variety of languages are spoken at home. The housing market in the area reflects Boston’s general high cost, with home values and rents well above national medians, and mortgages requiring a significant share of income.
The district brief for Boston Public Schools did not identify any recent district-level changes of lasting impact to note. The school itself does not have a reported chronic absenteeism rate or graduation rate, both of which are expected for a school that serves only the earliest grades. No information on discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance was available.
For a family considering this school, the key factors are its inclusive model, its early-elementary-only grade span, its location in a transit-connected urban neighborhood, and the limited and dated testing evidence. A parent who values an inclusive setting and wants a small, neighborhood-based start for a young child may find it worth exploring further, especially by asking the school for current academic information and details about how it supports the full range of learners.
See more original research from School Decision →