The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Thomas Fleming School
Thomas Fleming School sits in Essex Junction, Vermont, serving only the fourth and fifth grades. It is part of the Essex Westford Educational Community Unified Union School District, a consolidated system that operates schools across Essex Junction, Essex Town, and Westford. The school itself sits on Prospect Street, within a community where schools are distributed among neighborhoods rather than clustered on a single campus. Because Thomas Fleming covers just two grades, it functions as a transitional stepping stone, likely receiving students from nearby elementary buildings and sending them on to middle school.
On state assessments through the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program, the school's English language arts results stand out as a clear strength. A substantial majority of fourth graders reached proficiency, and fifth graders did even better, with roughly seven in ten demonstrating grade-level command of reading and writing. Math results are more mixed. Fourth grade math proficiency was lower, with fewer than half of tested students meeting the benchmark, while fifth grade math was markedly stronger, with a clear majority proficient. Science, tested only in fifth grade, landed in between, with about half of students reaching proficiency. The gap between fourth and fifth grade math is wide enough that a parent may want to look into this further with the school, to understand whether it reflects cohort differences, instructional emphasis, or something else.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for this grade band, not a sign of missing performance. The comparison set positioning the school relative to districts in Chittenden County could not produce a proficiency index because the school-level cohort within the county was too small to compare meaningfully. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available for this school.
Enrollment is small, as one would expect for a two-grade building. The student body is predominantly white, with small groups of Asian, multiracial, Hispanic, and Black students, along with a single American Indian or Alaska Native student. A moderate share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not reported, so those dimensions of student support cannot be characterized here. No information on staffing, course access, discipline, or attendance was available in the data provided. Program offerings were also absent, so parents would need to inquire directly about extracurriculars, intervention services, and enrichment.
Essex Junction itself became Vermont's tenth city relatively recently, separating from the Town of Essex after a long history of disputed tax burdens and failed merger attempts. The community is a mix of residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors anchored around the historic Five Corners intersection and the Pearl Street corridor, both of which have undergone publicly reported, federally funded restorations. GlobalFoundries' semiconductor fabrication plant, publicly reported as the largest private employer in Vermont, dominates the local industrial base. Many residents also commute to the University of Vermont Medical Center, the University of Vermont, Saint Michael's College, General Dynamics, or state government jobs. The downtown has a transportation terminal serving Amtrak and Green Mountain Transit, and the city sits close to Interstate 89 and Burlington International Airport. The Champlain Valley Exposition, host of the state's largest fair, is another civic anchor.
Housing in the school's zip code runs above both state and national benchmarks for typical home values, and the price-to-income ratio sits above six, which signals a market where ownership stretches household budgets. Rents are more moderate relative to income, and renting costs considerably less per month than carrying a mortgage at current rates, which may shape who lives in the attendance area.
For a family considering Thomas Fleming, the academic picture is one of solid literacy performance, uneven math results across the two grades, and a compact two-year setting inside a growing small city with a strong employment base and a walkable core.
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