The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Swanton School
Swanton School sits in the heart of Swanton, Vermont, a town where the Missisquoi River winds through the village before reaching Lake Champlain. The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of the Missisquoi Valley School District, which also covers Franklin and Highgate Center. Swanton itself is a community shaped by its geography: bordered by Lake Champlain to the west, Québec to the north, and the Green Mountains foothills to the east. Interstate 89, US Route 7, and VT Route 78 all converge near the village center, making this a crossroads town with a working, commercial character rather than a purely residential one. The village has family-owned businesses, national stores, and a town green famous for its royal swans. Outlying areas are agricultural and residential, and the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi maintains tribal headquarters and a museum in Swanton, a cultural anchor for the region. The school itself is woven into this village fabric, located alongside municipal offices, the police and fire departments, and Village Green Park rather than on a separate campus.
The enrollment is sizable for a Vermont elementary school, drawing from both the village and surrounding rural areas. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the working-class and agricultural character of the community. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful portion identifying as two or more races, and smaller numbers of Hispanic, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian students. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here. No trend data across multiple years was available for academic performance, and participation rates for the state assessments were missing from the reported data.
On the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program, Swanton School's results show a clear pattern: younger grades struggle, and older grades improve markedly. In math, third-grade proficiency is low, fourth grade is only somewhat better, and fifth grade shows moderate improvement. Sixth grade, by contrast, jumps to a strong majority of students scoring proficient, suggesting that students who remain at Swanton through the upper elementary years make substantial gains. English language arts follows a similar trajectory. Third, fourth, and fifth grades cluster in a moderate range, while sixth grade reaches a comfortably high proficiency level. Science is tested only in fifth grade, where about a third of students scored proficient, a middling result. The contrast between the lower and upper grades is the defining feature of this school's academic profile. A parent looking at these numbers would want to understand what happens between third and sixth grade that produces such a shift, and whether the school can extend that trajectory to the earlier years. This is a question worth raising directly with the school.
Because Swanton School does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The comparison fact-set, which positions the school relative to districts in Franklin County, could not produce a proficiency index because the comparable cohort was too small, and graduation and chronic absenteeism comparisons were not applicable for the same reason. So the school's standing against its neighbors in Franklin County cannot be characterized from the available data.
The housing market in Swanton is modest by Vermont standards. Home values sit below the state benchmark and below the national benchmark as well, making this one of the more affordable places to buy a home in the region. The price-to-income ratio is close to the national figure, suggesting that for local wages, housing is attainable relative to much of the country, though current mortgage rates make monthly costs a real consideration. Rent data was not available. The town has seen modest population growth in recent estimates, and no major new housing developments were identified in publicly reported sources.
Swanton School is a large elementary school in a working community with affordable housing, a village-centered civic life, and a particular academic pattern: younger grades that need attention and an upper elementary program that appears to produce strong results by sixth grade. For a family with young children, the early-grade proficiency numbers are worth asking about. For a family with older elementary students, the sixth-grade results suggest the school can deliver.
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