The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 40% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Dr Gertrude Bailey
Dr Gertrude Bailey is a regular public elementary school in Lowell that serves children from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. As an early-elementary school, it does not offer high school programs, so there is no graduation rate to report here. The school is one of many elementaries in the Lowell district, and its test results come from the grades that do sit for state assessments: third and fourth grade.
On the most recent state testing, the NextGen MCAS, math proficiency reached about half of students, while English language arts proficiency was at roughly two in five. These results place the school below the midpoint for overall proficiency among the county’s districts, a comparison set that includes all districts across Middlesex County. Looking back over the available years, math performance has moved around considerably, from a earlier high near six in ten down to a lower level of about a third during the pandemic disruption, then recovering to about half in recent years. ELA has followed a somewhat different path: it reached as high as the mid-fifties in some earlier years, then settled into the low forties and even dipped into the low thirties, before rising back to about two in five in the latest year. The trend in ELA bears watching, as the most recent figure is still below where the school was several years ago.
The student body at Dr Gertrude Bailey is diverse. The largest group of students is Asian, followed by Hispanic students, then white students. There are smaller shares of Black students and students of two or more races. No data was available for the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and neither the count of students with individualized education programs nor the number of English learners was reported in the available records. A parent may want to ask the school directly about the resources available for students who need additional academic support or language services, as those details are not captured in the public data we reviewed.
Because this is an elementary school serving only the early grades, many of the indicators commonly used for secondary schools, such as chronic absenteeism rates and course access measures, do not apply or were not available. The school environment and staffing data were also absent. Similarly, no program offerings were listed, which is common for a school of this grade band where offerings are typically embedded in the classroom rather than published as separate pathways.
The home values in the zip code area around the school are high, in line with the broader Greater Boston housing market. Homes in Middlesex County have been selling quickly, with a lean supply of listings. Rents are also elevated, reflecting the regional pressure on housing. A family moving into the area should expect a competitive market and a cost of living that sits above many other parts of the state. No district-level changes were found in the public record that would directly affect this school, so the operational context appears stable in recent years.
Dr Gertrude Bailey provides a standard early-elementary program in a city school system. Its academic results sit below the middle of the pack relative to other districts in Middlesex County, and the current ELA proficiency level is softer than it was a decade ago. For a parent whose child would enter in the youngest grades, the school offers a diverse learning environment and a typical elementary experience in a district that spans the full K-12 spectrum. Given the gaps in the public data on student support programs, a direct conversation with the school about what is available for early literacy and math intervention would be a reasonable next step.
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