The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on St. Albans City Elementary School
St. Albans City Elementary School sits at 29 Bellows Street in the heart of Saint Albans, Vermont, serving prekindergarten through eighth grade as part of the Maple Run Unified Union School District. It is a sizable school for its grade band, with enrollment spread fairly evenly across the grades. The student body is predominantly white, with small representations of Hispanic, multiracial, Black, Asian, and Native American students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the working-class character of much of the surrounding community. The school is not a charter or magnet school. Data on English learners and special education enrollment was not available in the sources we reviewed.
State assessment results from the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program were partially reported for the most recent school year. Many grade-level results were suppressed, likely due to small subgroup sizes or privacy rules that often affect schools at this scale. What was reported shows mixed proficiency. In math, roughly a fifth of fifth graders and just over a quarter of sixth graders reached proficiency. English language arts results were somewhat stronger, with about three-tenths of fifth graders and roughly three-eighths of sixth graders proficient. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grade, fell in between, with just over a quarter of fifth graders and just over a third of eighth graders meeting the standard. These are modest proficiency levels, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly given that results for several grades were not publicly reported. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether performance is moving in a particular direction. We looked for the district's strategic priorities and recent curriculum or policy changes but found little, so we left it out rather than guess.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The neighbor comparison set, drawn from districts in Franklin County, did not produce applicable proficiency, graduation, or attendance benchmarks for this school, so we cannot position it against its peers with the available data.
The community context matters here. Saint Albans comprises two municipalities: the City, which is the commercial and civic core of Franklin County, and the surrounding Town, which is largely residential and rural, extending to Lake Champlain. The City has a walkable downtown centered on Taylor Park, with Victorian architecture, shops, restaurants, and the Amtrak Vermonter terminus providing daily service to Washington, D.C. The Town describes itself as one of the fastest-growing communities in Vermont, driven by its position along the Interstate 89 corridor about thirty miles north of Burlington. Major employers include a federal citizenship and immigration services center, the Northwestern Medical Center, the school district itself, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and Dairy Farmers of America. The area's railroad and dairy heritage still lingers, but the economy has shifted toward commuting, healthcare, and public-sector employment.
Housing in the school's zip code sits near the Vermont state benchmark and slightly above the national one, with typical home values in a moderate range for the region. The price-to-income ratio suggests that affordability is somewhat stretched relative to national norms, which is consistent with a growing commuter area within reach of Burlington. Rental data was not available.
For a family considering this school, the picture is one of a community in transition: a historic small city with a growing population, a mix of agricultural and service-sector employment, and a school serving a diverse economic cross-section of children. The academic results that are available are on the lower side, and the gaps in reported data make it difficult to form a complete picture. A parent weighing this school would benefit from asking directly about instructional support, intervention programs, and how the school handles the needs of its substantial low-income population.
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