The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Harwood Union Middle/high School
Harwood Union Middle/High School sits along Route 100 in Moretown, a small rural town in Washington County that serves as home base for the school even though it draws students from across the surrounding Harwood Unified Union School District. The campus covers grades seven through twelve, which makes it a combined middle and high school under one roof. The enrollment is moderate for a Vermont secondary school of this grade span, with the high school grades accounting for the bulk of the student body.
The student population is nearly entirely white, reflecting the demographics of the Mad River Valley and surrounding hill towns. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those figures are absent from the picture rather than absent from the school. The same goes for staffing ratios, course catalogs, discipline data, and attendance figures, none of which were available in the sources we reviewed.
State assessment results from the most recent year are available only for the middle grades, since Vermont tests students in grades seven and eight in math and English language arts, and grade eight in science. The seventh-grade results are solid. Roughly two-thirds of seventh graders reached proficiency in both math and English language arts, with English slightly ahead of math. Eighth grade tells a different story. English language arts held strong, with about two-thirds proficient, but math proficiency dropped off sharply, falling to well under half. Science proficiency in eighth grade was lower still, with only about three in ten testing proficient. The gap between seventh and eighth grade math is the kind of pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school, to understand whether it reflects a cohort issue, a curriculum transition, or something else. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether this is a one-year dip or a persistent pattern.
Graduation rate data was not provided, which is a real gap for a school whose upper grades make up most of its enrollment. The comparison fact-set, which positions this school relative to districts in Washington County, could not compute proficiency or graduation comparisons because the cohort was too small or the entity value was missing. So there is no county-level benchmark to anchor the read against.
Moretown itself is a quiet, dispersed residential community. There is no traditional downtown, no walkable commercial strip, and no major employer within the town. The Moretown General Store functions as gas station, deli, and informal community hub. The town hall houses the library. Civic life clusters around those few institutions and three churches. Most working residents commute to Montpelier or Burlington, and the town has grown slowly over the past decade with recent estimates suggesting a slight population decline. Hurricane Irene devastated the village, flooding more than sixty homes and buildings including the school, post office, and fire station. Recovery and modernization efforts have been ongoing since.
The housing market around the school sits above both the Vermont and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code run well higher than the state median, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost substantially exceeds estimated rent costs, which makes ownership a stretch for many families relative to renting. The price-to-income ratio is elevated. For families considering a move into the district, the housing premium reflects the appeal of the Mad River Valley location and access to a consolidated secondary school, but it also means the barrier to entry is real.
What Harwood Union offers is a single secondary pathway for students across several rural towns, combining middle and high school in one building with a peer group that is close-knit and largely homogeneous. The academic signal from the tested middle grades is mixed: English language arts is a clear strength, math is uneven, and science is a soft spot. Without graduation data, advanced course offerings, or attendance figures, a full picture is not possible from the available data. Parents considering this school would do well to ask directly about the high school program, the eighth-grade math dip, and what supports are in place for students who arrive below grade level.
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