The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in Science. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Sumner Avenue
Sumner Avenue is a regular public elementary school in Springfield, Massachusetts, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the Springfield public school district, the largest school system in western Massachusetts. The school is located in the city's 01108 zip code, a residential section of a dense urban environment.
Springfield itself is the third-largest city in Massachusetts and the economic anchor of the Pioneer Valley. It is a place of historic firsts from the invention of basketball to the first American dictionary, and its built environment is a mix of Victorian-era housing stock, a revitalized downtown anchored by the Basketball Hall of Fame and MGM casino, and the Connecticut River waterfront. The city has faced economic challenges over recent decades, and the school sits within a district where many students come from households with significant economic need.
Sumner Avenue serves a student body of several hundred children, making it a mid-sized elementary school for the area. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black population, and smaller shares of white, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as counts of students with disabilities or those learning English, were not available in the data reviewed; a parent may want to ask the school directly about these support figures, as they are often central to understanding a school's resource profile.
On the most recent state assessments, the Next-Generation MCAS, Sumner Avenue's students scored below the midpoint of school districts in Hampden County when overall proficiency across math, English language arts, and science is combined. In math, roughly a fifth of students tested at the proficient or advanced level. In ELA, the share was similar, at about a fifth. In science, the share was also about a fifth. These are the most recent results and they represent a continuation of a longer trend. Looking back at the school's tested performance since the 2016-2017 school year, proficiency rates in both ELA and math were higher then, before a significant drop during the pandemic school years. They have not returned to that earlier baseline.
The school has a consistent track record of high participation rates on the state tests, meaning the results reflect nearly all enrolled students. The school serves only elementary grades so there is no graduation rate data to report.
The comparison to other districts in Hampden County places Sumner Avenue's proficiency index below the midpoint of the group. This is not a surprise given the broader context of urban school districts in Massachusetts facing similar challenges around poverty, mobility, and language diversity.
For a family considering Sumner Avenue, the school offers a neighborhood elementary experience in a historic urban setting, with a student body that reflects the diversity of Springfield. The academic attainment numbers are a soft spot that any parent would want to understand more deeply by visiting the school and asking about instructional supports, intervention programs, and how the school is working to raise achievement from its current levels. The district brief turned up no major recent changes that would reshape the school's direction, though the broader city has seen investment in downtown development and transit improvements in recent years.
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