The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in Math. The lowest is 63% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Swallow/union School
Swallow/Union School serves kindergarten through fourth grade in Dunstable, a rural town in northern Middlesex County. It is one of two elementary schools in the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District; students move on to the regional middle and high school in neighboring Groton. The school building sits on Main Street, Dunstable's only numbered route, in a town that has consciously preserved its agricultural and single-family character even as suburban development has pressed in from the south and east. There is no public transit here; families drive everywhere, including to the regional secondary campuses across town lines.
The school itself is small for a K-4 building, with enrollment modest enough that a parent is likely to know most other families by sight. Its student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Asian and Hispanic students and a very small Black student population. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals was not available, nor were counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about its support services and the economic diversity of its families.
Academically, Swallow/Union has a strong record. On the state’s NextGen MCAS assessments, the school’s combined math and English language arts proficiency index places it in the top quarter of all districts in Middlesex County. The most recent year’s results show a higher proficiency rate in math than in ELA, a pattern that has held over time. The math results have been consistently solid for the past several years, with the most recent year still comfortably above the county median. ELA results have moved more: they were stronger in the years before the pandemic and through 2024, then dipped in the 2024-25 school year. The current rate remains above the county midpoint, but the decline is noticeable. A parent may want to ask the school how it is addressing literacy instruction given that shift.
Because Swallow/Union serves only early elementary grades, there is no graduation rate, no chronic absenteeism data that applies to this context, and no high school course offerings to report. The academic picture is entirely about foundational skills in reading and math.
The town of Dunstable provides the setting. It is a car-dependent community of roughly seventeen square miles where single-family homes on large lots predominate and commercial activity is limited to a small town center district with a cafe, a general store, a gas station, and a flower shop. Major shopping and the nearest highway access (US 3) lie a short drive east. The civic heart—Town Hall, the public library, the Town Commons—is on Main Street, but the school campus is separate, located further along the same road. Home values in the area are high, well above state and national medians, reflecting the desirability of the region's school system and the rural-homes market. The housing market in the broader Middlesex County area shows median listing prices that have eased slightly recently, but overall affordability remains a challenge; the estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is steep. Rent data for Dunstable was not available, but the county-level trends show rising shelter costs.
The school does not have any charter or magnet designation and is a regular public school. No information was available about its Title I status or whether it offers any specialized programs. For a family considering Dunstable, the core picture is of a small, academically strong elementary school in a rural, car-dependent town with high housing costs, where children will move on to a regional secondary system in a neighboring town. The dip in recent ELA scores is the one clear soft spot in an otherwise consistently high-performing academic profile.
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