The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Social studies. The lowest is 28% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Georgetown Middle School
Georgetown Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in a single building in the town of Georgetown, a mostly residential community on Boston’s North Shore. The town has its own municipal school district, which is unusual in the area. The school is a conventional public middle school and is not a charter or magnet school. There is no information about Title I status or about the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so the economic profile of the student body is not clear from the available data.
The school’s enrollment is small, as is typical for a grade 7-8 building in a town of Georgetown’s size. The student body is overwhelmingly white. A small number of students are Hispanic, a small number are Asian, and a small number identify as two or more races. There were no students identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, and no students identified as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available.
State testing results for the most recent year show that the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Essex County. In math, more than a quarter of students scored proficient; in English language arts, about a third did; in science, just over a third scored proficient, and in eighth-grade social studies, slightly more than two-fifths scored proficient. These are the levels at which a parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly in math and English, where the figures are a soft spot relative to many other middle schools in the county.
Looking at the school’s trend data over several years, math proficiency has moved within a moderate range, with some years higher and some lower. English language arts proficiency has trended down from a higher point in earlier years to its current level. The most recent single-year figures represent some of the lower points in that span. Because the state changed its assessment framework in a way that may affect comparability, the precise direction of the trend is uncertain, but the recent numbers are lower than what the school posted several years ago.
Georgetown itself is a car-dependent town with no mass transit; the nearest commuter rail stop is in neighboring Rowley. The housing market in the broader Essex County area has a high median listing price, and the typical home in Georgetown’s ZIP code is valued well above the national benchmark. For a family considering this school, the cost of housing in the town is a clear factor, as is the limited transportation infrastructure. The town’s civic anchors are clustered near the school: the library, town hall, and central fire station are in the downtown area, and the school sits within that civic core. There are no large private employers in town; the municipal government and the school district are among the main employers.
Overall, Georgetown Middle School is a small, conventional public middle school in a residential suburb with high housing costs. Its academic performance on state tests is below the midpoint among Essex County districts, with a downward trend in English over the years. The student body is not economically diverse by the measures available, and there is very limited information about student support services, discipline, staffing, or course offerings. Parents considering the school will want to seek additional detail from the district about academic interventions, special education, and enrichment opportunities, as those areas are not well documented in the public data reviewed here.
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