The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in English language arts. The lowest is 37% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Bellows Free Academy Elementary (fairfax)
Bellows Free Academy Elementary sits on Hunt Street in Fairfax, a town in Vermont's Franklin County. It is a public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, part of the Fairfax School District, and it carries a name that reflects the region's long tradition of academy-style public schools. The school draws a predominantly white student body, with small numbers of students identifying as Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and two or more races. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a moderate share for the area. The total enrollment is solidly mid-sized for a Vermont elementary, with a fairly even distribution across grades and a notably large pre-kindergarten cohort, suggesting the school functions as a community entry point for many local families.
State testing results from the most recent year tell a partial story. Most grade-level proficiency rates for grades three, four, and five in both math and English language arts were suppressed, meaning the state did not release those figures publicly, likely due to small subgroup sizes or privacy thresholds. What is available comes from the sixth grade and the fifth grade science assessment. In sixth-grade math, roughly two-fifths of tested students reached proficiency. In sixth-grade ELA, just over half did. Fifth-grade science showed a lower share, with fewer than two-fifths proficient. These are the only reported figures, so drawing a broad conclusion about the school's overall academic performance would be speculative. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking why most grade-level results were suppressed and what the full picture looks like across all grades. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. That gap simply reflects the grade band, not a missing outcome.
The comparison fact-set attempts to place this school relative to districts in Franklin County, but the cohort was too small to produce a meaningful proficiency index, and no graduation or chronic absenteeism comparisons were available. We looked for the school's strategic priorities, program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, and attendance figures, but found little in the provided material, so we left those out rather than guess. Information on English learners and students with individualized education programs was also missing.
The housing context is clearer. Fairfax sits in a ZIP code where typical home values run above both the Vermont state benchmark and the national one, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost reflects current interest rates in the mid-six percent range. Rental data was not available for this area. For families considering a move, buying a home here carries a higher price tag than much of the state, which may shape who can access the school through the residential market. No locale brief or district brief was provided, so details about town character, recent district changes, or community growth patterns are not something we can describe from the available data.
What the evidence does say: this is a conventional public elementary school in a small Vermont town, serving a fairly homogeneous student population with moderate economic need. The limited testing data that is public shows middling proficiency in the upper grades, with ELA stronger than math and science. Families weighing this school should ask the district directly about the suppressed results, what supports are in place for math and science instruction, and what the pre-kindergarten program looks like, since it enrolls a substantial share of the school's youngest learners.
See more original research from School Decision →