The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in Science. The lowest is 50% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Merrymount
Merrymount is a regular public elementary school in Quincy, Massachusetts, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the Quincy school district, which covers a city that functions as one of Boston’s immediate southern suburbs. Quincy blends dense residential neighborhoods with commercial nodes, especially around Quincy Center, and has a strong immigrant community. The city is walkable in and around its downtown core, with several MBTA Red Line stations anchoring transit-oriented neighborhoods. Major redevelopment, described as one of the largest urban revitalization efforts in Massachusetts, is underway in downtown Quincy, and the city has seen significant new housing construction near transit stations.
Merrymount is a school of modest size for an elementary building, serving students from kindergarten through fifth grade. The student population is predominantly white, with a substantial Asian share and smaller Hispanic and Black shares. Data on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as counts of students with individualized education programs or classified as English learners, was not available. A parent who wants to understand the socioeconomic and special-education context of the school may want to look into this further with the district.
On the state’s NextGen MCAS assessments, Merrymount’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint when compared with other schools in Norfolk County. In the most recent testing year, about half of students scored proficient or above in both math and English language arts. Results in science, which is tested only in a single elementary grade rather than across all grades, showed a similar share of students scoring proficient or above. These figures represent a single year’s snapshot.
Looking back over the past several years, Merrymount’s performance has moved around. In English language arts, proficiency rates were higher, in the low to mid-sixties, for several years before declining to around half in the most recent two testing cycles. In math, the pattern has been more uneven, with rates ranging from the high thirties to the low sixties, and the most recent year showing a modest recovery after a dip. A parent tracking academic trends might want to ask the school about instructional changes or shifts in the student cohort that could explain these movements.
Because Merrymount is an elementary school serving only grades K through 5, no graduation rate or high school outcomes are reported here. The school’s academic environment is defined entirely by these early-grade test results and demographic profile.
The school is located in a residential area of Quincy, within a city that has historically been a working-class and middle-class industrial center but now has a growing professional and service economy connected to Boston. Major employers include the city government, financial services firms, and healthcare providers. Housing values in the area are high relative to national benchmarks, reflecting the broader Boston metro market. Rents are also elevated. A family considering moving into the Merrymount attendance zone should expect a fairly expensive housing market, though not as high as some of the closer-in Boston suburbs.
Merrymount is a neighborhood elementary school in a city undergoing significant growth and redevelopment, serving a diverse student body and turning in academic results that sit in the middle of the range among its county peers. The district itself shows no recent major changes publicly reported, so parents can expect a stable administrative environment. Families who want a small-to-medium elementary school within a dense, transit-connected city with a strong job base may find Merrymount a practical fit, though the school’s test scores in recent years warrant a conversation with the building about how they support student learning.
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