The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on St. Albans Town Educational Center
St. Albans Town Educational Center sits on South Main Street in Saint Albans, serving prekindergarten through eighth grade as part of the Maple Run Unified Union School District. The school draws from a community that straddles two municipalities: the City of Saint Albans, a walkable Franklin County hub with Victorian commercial architecture, Taylor Park, and an Amtrak terminus, and the surrounding Town, which is largely residential and rural, extending to Lake Champlain and St. Albans Bay. The Town publicly describes itself as one of the fastest-growing communities in Vermont, with development pressure driven by its position along Interstate 89 about thirty miles north of Burlington. That commuter pull shapes the area, and the school reflects a community in transition from its dairy and railroad heritage toward a service and commuter economy. Major employers in the area include a federal immigration services center, the regional hospital, the school district itself, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and a dairy cooperative.
The enrollment is moderate for a PreK-8 school, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small numbers of students identifying as Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or American Indian. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not reported, so those population details are absent here.
On Vermont's state assessment, results follow a pattern worth paying attention to. In the earlier tested grades, math proficiency is low, with roughly a quarter of fifth and sixth graders scoring proficient. By seventh grade, math proficiency rises sharply, with a clear majority of tested students meeting the standard. English language arts follows a similar arc: fifth grade is modest, sixth grade improves, and seventh grade shows a majority proficient. Science was tested only in fifth and eighth grade, with fifth-grade proficiency low and eighth grade showing a somewhat higher but still modest share of students proficient. Several grade-level results were suppressed, which often reflects small subgroup sizes or privacy thresholds, so a complete grade-by-grade picture is not available. No multi-year trend data was provided, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving or declining over time. The proficiency gap between the earlier and later grades at this school is a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school, to understand what drives the shift and whether instruction is changing as students move through the building.
Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary incidents, course access, staffing ratios, or attendance was available. The comparison fact-set, which positions this school relative to districts in Franklin County, did not yield applicable comparison metrics for proficiency, graduation, or absenteeism, so there is no neighbor benchmark to set these results against. Program offerings were not provided, so information about extracurriculars, arts, special services, or advanced coursework is absent from what we received.
The housing market around the school is moderately priced by Vermont standards. Typical home values sit below the state benchmark and near the national one, with modest year-over-year appreciation. The price-to-income ratio suggests a market that is somewhat more accessible than many parts of the state, though mortgage costs at current interest rates still require a solid household income. Rental data was not available. The district brief returned no parent-relevant changes such as recent referendums, curriculum shifts, or property-tax adjustments, so there is little to report on recent district-level decisions.
What emerges is a PreK-8 school in a growing community with mixed academic results. The upper grades show real strength on state tests, while the earlier tested grades are weaker, and the available data has enough gaps that a family would want to ask the school directly about how it supports students across the full grade range. The location offers a blend of small-town civic life and lake access with commuter convenience to Burlington, and the housing market is comparatively approachable for the region. Who it fits depends on whether the academic trajectory in the middle grades aligns with what a family is looking for, and whether the missing pieces on staffing, programs, and student support can be filled in through direct conversation with the school.
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