The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in Science. The lowest is 36% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Henry B. Burkland Elementary School
Henry B. Burkland Elementary School serves students in first through fifth grades in Middleborough, a sprawling town in southeastern Massachusetts where cranberry bogs, working farms, and residential subdivisions spread across one of the largest land areas in the state. The school is one of two elementary buildings in the Middleborough district that handle grades 1-5, with a separate early childhood center for kindergarten and a combined middle-high school project approved by voters that is expected to open later this decade.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of students who identify as two or more races, Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, so it is not possible to assess the school’s economic composition from the provided figures. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was also missing.
On the 2024-25 NextGen MCAS assessments, the share of students scoring proficient or above was below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Plymouth County. In English language arts, just over a third of students reached the proficient benchmark, and in math and science the proficiency rates were similar. These marks place the school in the bottom quarter of districts in the county for overall academic performance. A look at the trend data going back nearly a decade shows that proficiency rates in English language arts and math were higher before the pandemic, with about half of students hitting the proficient mark in 2018-19 in both subjects. The 2024-25 results are lower than those pre-pandemic levels, and a parent may want to ask the school about the supports in place to address this pattern.
The school itself is a regular public elementary school. It sits on its own campus, away from Middleborough’s downtown commercial center, and buses serve the town’s far-flung neighborhoods. The district recently adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum grounded in the science of reading, which was implemented across all elementary schools starting in the 2023-24 school year after a review process that began in 2021. All elementary teachers received professional development for the shift, which represents a significant change in how reading is taught. The district also operates under a five-year strategic plan that runs through 2027, with emphasis on academic excellence, social-emotional learning, equity and inclusion, and community engagement. That plan includes expanded STEM offerings at the middle and high school levels, though Burkland’s program offerings were not detailed in the available data.
Middleborough is a town with a distinct identity as a cranberry-growing center and a former shoe-manufacturing hub. It remains home to the Alden Shoe Company, one of the last shoe manufacturers in America, and Ocean Spray Cranberries has its corporate headquarters just over the town line in Lakeville. The top industries today are health care and social assistance, accommodations and food services, and manufacturing. The town’s housing market shows a median home value that sits near the state benchmark, with the cost of buying a home requiring a substantial share of income relative to the national median household income. Five-year mortgage rates are above their historic lows, and the for-sale market has seen a modest increase in active listings compared to a year ago, while the number of pending sales has jumped markedly, suggesting a shift in market dynamics.
For a family considering Burkland, the school offers a straightforward elementary program in a town that is still rural in character despite the highway access and commuter rail connection to Boston. The proficiency numbers are below the county average, and the trend over recent years is something to explore directly with the school. The district has made a deliberate curriculum change in literacy and is investing in a major building project that will reshape secondary education, but those changes may take time to show results at the elementary level.
See more original research from School Decision →