The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Math. The lowest is 53% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Stanley
Stanley is a regular public school in Swampscott, a coastal town on Massachusetts Bay roughly a dozen miles northeast of Boston. It serves only grades one through four, which frames everything about the school: there is no graduation rate to report, and state testing data is available for only grades three and four, the upper end of its band. The school sits within the Swampscott district, which was reorganized in 2024 when the district opened a new consolidated elementary school at the former Stanley site, replacing the previous three elementary buildings. This means Stanley, as a named building, now houses that new school, though the district’s grade configuration shifted to a single pre-K through grade four facility.
The student body is small for a regular elementary school and is predominantly white, with a modest share of Asian, Black, and Hispanic students. The school offers no data on economic disadvantage, special education identification, or English learner status, so a family looking for the share of students receiving free or reduced-price meals or the proportion with an individualized education program will need to ask the district directly.
On the Massachusetts state assessments, Stanley’s students performed with mixed results. In math, roughly half of the tested students scored at the proficient level or above. In English language arts, the share proficient was slightly lower, also around half. Compared with all other districts in Essex County, the school’s combined proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint, meaning its overall academic performance is stronger than the typical school in the county. That said, the data reveals a notable erosion in English language arts proficiency over the past several years: the school recorded a rate in the low 70s in 2016-17, reached the high 70s in 2017-18, and then settled in the low-to-mid 60s for several years before dropping into the low 50s in 2023-24. Math proficiency has been more cyclical but has also declined from a high in the mid-60s in 2017-18 and 2022-23 to its current level in the mid-50s. A parent may want to discuss these trends with the school, particularly the sustained drop in reading and writing performance.
Swampscott itself is a fairly affluent, mostly suburban residential community with a rocky Atlantic shoreline and five beaches. The town has a small land area and a population that has remained fairly stable. It is served by MBTA commuter rail and bus lines, and civic life centers around Monument Square and town hall. The school infrastructure chapter is the main development story: voters approved a substantial debt exclusion in 2021 to construct the new consolidated elementary school, which opened in September 2024, and the high school received a new building in an earlier year. A separate Proposition 2½ override for operating funds also passed in 2021, permanently increasing the district’s budget baseline and property taxes.
Housing values in the zip code are well above the national benchmark, and renting costs a substantial share of median household income. Families relocating to the area should weigh the affordability picture alongside the school’s academic profile, which is above average for Essex County in a district that has recently invested heavily in its facilities but is contending with declining elementary test scores.
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