Original Research by School Decision on Moody
Moody is a regular public school in Haverhill, Massachusetts, serving children from pre-kindergarten through kindergarten. Because it serves only the earliest grades, the school does not participate in the state testing program that begins in grade three, and it has no graduation rate to report. A parent looking at this school will be evaluating it on its early childhood environment, not on the academic performance metrics used for older students.
The school is small for its grade band, with an enrollment that reflects a pre-K program that is much larger than its kindergarten section. The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by white students, with Black and Asian students also represented. The school did not report data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, nor on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner status, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the supports available for those populations.
Moody is part of the Haverhill Public Schools district. Haverhill is a mid-sized city on the Merrimack River, historically a shoe-manufacturing center that has since diversified into electrical goods, computerized systems, services, and retail trade. The city includes distinct neighborhoods such as Bradford across the river, and its downtown sits along the Merrimack with a traditional New England commercial streetscape. Two MBTA commuter rail stations serve the city, one in the downtown and one in Bradford, and Amtrak also stops at the Haverhill station. Interstate 495 crosses the city with multiple exits. The city has seen steady population growth, and recent school construction includes the completed reconstruction of Hunking Middle School in Bradford and ongoing work on a new campus for Dr. A.B. Consentino Middle School. The district brief turned up little in the way of recent district-level changes that would be of lasting impact to a parent.
Housing in the area carries a price that is above the national benchmark but below the state benchmark. Rents are also above the national norm. The market in Essex County shows a high level of activity, with a large number of active listings and a very high number of pending listings relative to the prior year, indicating a market where homes are going under contract quickly. The median days on market is short, and both supply and demand scores are high, pointing to a competitive environment for buyers.
Because Moody serves only pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, there is no state testing data, no graduation rate, and no chronic absenteeism data to report. The comparison fact-set that would place the school relative to other districts in Essex County was not applicable for these same reasons. A parent evaluating this school will be looking at the early childhood setting, the diversity of the student body, and the fit with their family's needs for the earliest school years, rather than at academic performance metrics that apply to older grades. The school's small size and its focus on the youngest learners mean that the typical measures used to compare schools across a county do not apply here.
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