The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Montello School
Montello School sits on East Avenue in Lewiston, serving prekindergarten through sixth grade as part of Lewiston Public Schools. It is one of the larger elementary buildings in the district, with a fairly even distribution of students across each grade level. The school's student body is racially diverse in a way that stands out for Maine: a majority of students are Black, about a third are White, and smaller shares identify as Hispanic, multirace, or Asian. A very large proportion of Montello's families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods more than any single family's circumstance.
Lewiston itself is a city of layers. Originally a textile mill town on the Androscoggin River, it has moved toward a diversified economy built around healthcare, education, financial services, manufacturing, and warehousing. The city carries a strong Franco-American heritage, publicly reported as the largest French-speaking population in the United States by number, alongside a growing Somali community that has reshaped parts of the city over the past two decades. Three colleges and two major hospitals anchor the institutional side of town. Small shops, local businesses, and global firms coexist in a setting that runs from dense downtown blocks to suburban and even rural edges. For a family considering Montello, the surrounding city offers working-class and immigrant roots with an evolving arts and cultural scene.
On state assessments, Montello's results are low. In the most recent Maine Through Year Assessment, well under a quarter of tested students reached proficiency in math, and roughly a quarter did so in English language arts. Science results were suppressed, so no proficiency figure is available for that subject. Participation rates were strong across all three subjects, meaning nearly all eligible students were tested, which gives the proficiency picture solid coverage. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what supports are in place for reading and math growth and how the building is working to close gaps given the high level of economic need in its enrollment.
Because Montello serves only elementary and prekindergarten grades, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school course access to evaluate. The state does not test prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, or second graders, so proficiency figures reflect grades three through six only. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from the provided data whether these results represent a decline, a plateau, or something else. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was missing from the available records, so those population shares go unnamed here rather than estimated.
Housing in the school's zip code sits below both the state and national benchmarks for typical home values, which may make the area relatively accessible for families looking to buy. Rent is also modest compared with mortgage costs, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home runs higher than typical rent by a meaningful margin, partly because of prevailing interest rates. Home values have crept up slightly year over year, while rents have dipped a fraction. The price-to-income ratio is moderate, suggesting that for households earning near the median, ownership is a stretch but not out of reach compared with many markets.
The district brief turned up no specific parent-relevant changes from recent months, such as referendums, curriculum overhauls, construction projects, or property tax shifts, that could be verified with sources. The district's strategic priorities were not available in the provided data, so those are left out rather than guessed.
Montello fits a family looking for a diverse, urban elementary setting in a city with deep immigrant and working-class roots and relatively affordable housing. The academic results are a real consideration, and a family evaluating this school would do well to ask directly what growth looks like for students who attend from prekindergarten through sixth grade, and what interventions the building uses to move more children toward proficiency.
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