The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in Science. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Daniel B Brunton
Daniel B Brunton is a regular public elementary school in Springfield, Massachusetts, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. It sits in the city's Sixteen Acres neighborhood, on Parker Street in the eastern part of Springfield. The school is part of the Springfield district, which is the largest school system in western Massachusetts.
The student body reflects the city's diversity. A majority of students identify as Hispanic, with substantial white and Black populations, and smaller shares of Asian students and students of two or more races. Enrollment is distributed roughly evenly across the elementary grades, with a preschool program that accounts for a notable share of the student count. Information on the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is not available from the official data; that gap makes it harder for a family to gauge the school's economic context directly from this profile. Similarly, data on students with disabilities and English learners is not reported here.
On state testing, Daniel B Brunton's results trail most other schools in Hampden County. On the NextGen MCAS assessments, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above in both English language arts and mathematics is well below the midpoint among the county's districts when looking at overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. The science proficiency rate, though higher than in ELA or math, still places the school among the lower-performing elementary schools in the county. Looking at trends over time, ELA proficiency has drifted downward since the late 2010s, while math proficiency dropped sharply during the pandemic and has only recently recovered to roughly where it was in the pre-COVID years, still well below the county median.
Because the school serves only grades PK through 5, no graduation rate is reported. That is expected and does not imply a weakness. Chronic absenteeism data and discipline data were also not available in this profile.
For families considering this school, the academic performance numbers are the central soft spot. A parent would want to talk directly with the principal or classroom teachers about how the school addresses skill gaps, what interventions are in place, and how instruction is paced. The school's website and district communications may offer fuller detail on academic support programming.
Springfield itself is a city with a dense urban fabric and a broad mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses. The Sixteen Acres neighborhood where the school is located is predominantly residential, with single-family homes and some multifamily housing. The housing market in the surrounding 01128 zip code and across Hampden County has seen moderate price growth, with the typical home value near the national average. City-wide, major employers such as MassMutual and Baystate Health anchor the economy, and recent redevelopment projects downtown have added a casino and a transit hub, though the city continues to work through long-term economic revitalization. The district has not reported any major recent changes in policy or leadership that would broadly alter the elementary school experience.
Daniel B Brunton is a neighborhood school serving one of Springfield's more residential corners. Its student composition is diverse and its enrollment is small enough for a PK-5 building. The primary consideration for a family is the school's academic outcomes, which are markedly lower than those of many peer schools in the county. A parent should explore what academic supports the school offers and how the school's approach aligns with their child's needs.
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