The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in English language arts. The lowest is 60% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Main Street Middle School
Main Street Middle School sits at 170 Main Street in Montpelier, the small Vermont state capital where state government, the insurance industry, and a compact brick downtown define daily life. The school serves grades five through eight as part of the Montpelier Roxbury Unified Union School District, and its location places it squarely in the civic and commercial core of a city that swells with daytime commuters to the State House and National Life Group. The Winooski River runs nearby, the terrain is hilly, and the built environment is dense for a capital this size. A parent walking the neighborhood would find the school embedded in a walkable downtown rather than isolated on a campus.
The school enrolls a moderate number of students spread evenly across its four grades, with each cohort roughly the same size. The student body is predominantly white, with small representation across Asian, Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students. About three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a modest share that suggests a mix of working-class and middle-class families rather than concentrated poverty. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those who need detail on special populations may want to ask the school directly.
Academically, the most recent state assessment results tell a mostly strong story, particularly in English language arts. Proficiency in ELA runs high across every grade, climbing from a solid majority of fifth graders to an even larger share of eighth graders meeting or exceeding the standard. The pattern is one of steady strength in reading and writing as students move through the building. Mathematics is more mixed. Fifth grade math proficiency is notably lower than the other grades, with a smaller share of students reaching proficiency, while sixth and seventh grade math results jump to a clear majority proficient. Eighth grade lands in between. The fifth grade number stands out as a soft spot, and a parent whose child is entering that grade may want to look into how the school supports the transition into middle school math. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grade, show a majority of students proficient in both, consistent with the overall academic picture.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, declining, or holding steady. Participation rates were also missing from the state data. Because this is a middle school serving grades five through eight, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school course access data such as AP or dual-credit offerings. Those metrics simply do not apply to this grade band.
The neighbor comparison set, drawn from districts in Washington County, could not produce a proficiency index or other comparative placement for this school because the cohort of comparable schools was too small. So the academic results above stand on their own rather than ranked against peers.
Several things are happening at the district level that a family should know. In late 2024, voters approved a capital improvement bond, the district's first in over a decade, that funds roof replacements at Main Street Middle School itself and at Montpelier High School, along with parking and circulation work at Union Elementary. The school building is receiving direct investment. Also, as of mid-2025 the district becomes its own supervisory union, separating from Washington Central, which gives it more direct control over budget, curriculum, and operations. The district is also rolling out a new literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading, with full implementation in the current school year, a shift that affects the elementary schools feeding into Main Street Middle and may shape how prepared incoming fifth graders are in coming years.
Montpelier as a community has a stable, small population and a housing market that sits above the state and national benchmarks for typical home values. Rents are moderate relative to income. The city is still recovering from catastrophic flooding in 2023 that damaged downtown businesses and public safety infrastructure, and flood recovery remains a civic concern. The school sits in that same downtown corridor, so the city's resilience efforts touch its immediate surroundings.
For a parent, the picture is this: a mid-sized middle school in a compact, civically engaged state capital, with strong reading and writing results, solid science performance, and math results that improve after a weaker fifth grade showing. The building is receiving fresh capital investment, the district is gaining autonomy, and the community is walkable and institutionally rich. The main question a family might press on is the fifth grade math result and what the school is doing about it.
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