The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Math. The lowest is 46% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Charles D Harrington
Charles D Harrington is a regular public elementary school in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, serving kindergarten through fourth grade as part of the Chelmsford Public Schools system. It is one of the district's elementary schools and draws its students from the village of North Chelmsford, a denser, more built-up section of the town. The school is situated on Richardson Road, near the Vinal Square commercial and civic center.
Academically, Harrington's performance on the state's NextGen MCAS assessments places it below the midpoint among elementary and middle schools in Middlesex County, based on a combined proficiency index across tested subjects. In the most recent testing year, roughly two out of every five students scored proficient or above in both English language arts and mathematics. That represents a noticeable decline from earlier years. Data available for the school shows that proficiency rates in ELA peaked around the late 2010s and have since dropped, while math proficiency also trended downward after a stronger period earlier in the decade. A parent considering this school may want to ask the school or district about the reasons behind the decline and what academic supports are in place, particularly in the upper elementary grades that are tested.
The student body is moderately sized for a K-4 building and reflects considerable racial and ethnic diversity. A majority of students are white, but there are sizable shares of Asian students, Hispanic students, and Black students, along with small numbers of multiracial and Native American students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not available, nor were counts of students with disabilities or English learners. Those gaps mean that a family cannot assess the school's economic diversity or the extent of special education and language services from this data alone. It is possible that those metrics are reported at the district level or are suppressed for a school of this size, but the information was not in the source material.
North Chelmsford itself is a suburban village with a walkable core at Vinal Square, where local businesses, restaurants, and a town green sit at the intersection of two state routes. Housing values in the area are well above national medians, and the local market shows a mix of moderate demand and limited supply. The town's public schools include Parker Middle School and Chelmsford High School, both of which Harrington students feed into, though the high school is located in North Chelmsford itself. The district is engaged with the Massachusetts School Building Authority on a feasibility study for major facility improvements at the high school, a long-term project that could eventually lead to a renovation or rebuild funded through a debt exclusion vote—a change families with younger children may want to follow as it could affect the district's finances and facilities by the time their children reach high school.
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