The top reported proficiency rate is 73% in Science. The lowest is 67% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cottage Street
Cottage Street is one of three elementary schools in the Sharon Public Schools system, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It is a regular public school in a primarily residential suburban town roughly 17 miles southwest of Boston, connected to the city by the MBTA Providence/Stoughton commuter rail line. The school sits within a district that has recently undergone significant facilities and policy changes, and its academic record places it among the strongest elementary options in Norfolk County.
On state assessments (the NextGen MCAS), a sizable majority of Cottage Street students scored at the proficient level or above in math, English language arts, and science. The school’s overall proficiency across all tested subjects sits well above the midpoint when compared with elementary schools across Norfolk County, landing in the top quartile. This is a consistently high-performing school; over the past several years, proficiency rates have remained broadly in the same range, with no dramatic swings. For a family focused on academic foundations in the elementary years, these results signal a school where most students are meeting grade-level expectations.
The student body is diverse by race and ethnicity. The largest group is white students, followed by Asian students, with smaller but notable shares of Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students. Data on the proportion of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners were not available from the source used here. A parent may want to follow up directly with the school to understand how it supports students with different learning needs and economic backgrounds.
Sharon itself is an educated, affluent community. The town has a high proportion of residents with bachelor’s and graduate degrees, and a significant share of residents speak a language other than English at home. Sharon has the highest concentration of Russian immigrants of any Massachusetts town and a substantial Asian population. The town’s housing market reflects this affluence: home values are well above state and national medians, and rents are correspondingly high. Families moving to the area should plan for a tight and expensive housing market. The town is largely car-dependent but has a walkable historic center along North Main Street, with the public library, churches, and the commuter rail station. Lake Massapoag, state park land, and extensive trail networks provide recreational options.
For families considering Cottage Street, the district context matters. Sharon built a new high school, completed in 2023, funded through a debt exclusion that added to property taxes for a substantial period. In 2025, the School Committee approved an elementary redistricting plan that reassigned a number of students to different schools starting in the 2025-2026 school year, directly affecting which elementary building a child attends. The high school has also moved to a proficiency-based grading system, replacing traditional letter grades; that shift may eventually influence expectations at the feeder middle and elementary levels. A parent exploring this school should confirm the current attendance boundaries for Cottage Street given the recent change.
Cottage Street fits a family seeking a high-performing elementary school in a diverse, well-educated suburb with strong transit access to Boston. The trade-off is the high cost of housing and the need to stay current on district-level decisions about boundaries and grading that could affect the elementary experience.
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