The top reported proficiency rate is 4% in English language arts. The lowest is 1% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Holyoke Middle School
Holyoke Middle School is a regular public school that served middle grades in the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The school is now closed. For a parent or resident looking at this record, the first fact to absorb is that the building is no longer enrolling students, so any consideration of this school would be historical or would lead to questions about where its former attendance zone now feeds.
Because the school is closed, key operational data is absent. Enrollment totals, student demographics, the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, and counts of students with disabilities or English learner status were not reported for the period the data covers. A parent would normally look at those figures to understand the peer environment; here that picture is unavailable.
What is available is a set of state assessment results from the 2022-23 school year, the last year the school was testing. The proficiency rates on the Next Generation MCAS were very low across all three subjects. In math, a very small fraction of students scored at the proficient or advanced level. In English language arts, the share was only modestly larger. In science, the proficient share was similarly very small. Participation rates were high, so these results reflect nearly the entire tested student body. The scale scores were below the state's proficiency threshold. These are hard numbers in the sense that they point to a student body where the vast majority were not meeting grade-level expectations on state assessments. A parent looking at this record might want to investigate further with the district about what academic supports were in place and what the learning environment was like. Given the school is closed, that conversation would now be about the broader district context.
That district context matters. Holyoke Public Schools has been under state receivership for several years and as of 2025 is classified as "Requiring assistance or intervention" on state accountability measures, with nearly every school in the district in that same category. The district's funding is overwhelmingly state-sourced, with only a small share coming from local property taxes, a pattern that reflects the receivership model. This governance reality shapes every school in the district and would have affected Holyoke Middle School during its operation.
The city of Holyoke itself is a small, historically industrial community built around the paper industry and the canal system that powered it. Once known as "The Paper City," it now hosts the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, an intercollegiate research facility, and retains some specialty manufacturing. The population peaked decades ago and has declined, with a significant demographic shift: a large share of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. Downtown Holyoke has a grid layout with historic mill buildings, a canal walk, and civic anchors such as Heritage State Park and the Volleyball Hall of Fame. The housing market in the broader Holyoke area shows moderate prices relative to the state, with homes selling relatively quickly and a mix of active and pending listings. Rents are below national averages. For a family looking at the school district, these housing conditions make Holyoke a more affordable option within Massachusetts.
But for this specific school, the central takeaway is that it no longer operates. Any family considering middle school options in Holyoke would need to look at the other middle schools in the district, all of which face the same district-level challenges of state oversight and low academic performance. The record here provides a snapshot of a school that served a high-needs population in a district under intense scrutiny, and it is now closed.
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