The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in Science. The lowest is 19% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Union Street School
UnionStreet School sits at 43 Union Street in Springfield, Vermont, serving grades three through five as part of the Springfield School District. It is one of two public elementary schools in town, alongside Elm Hill, feeding into Riverside Middle School and then Springfield High School. The school occupies its own campus, set apart from the downtown core that runs along the Black River.
Springfield itself is a regional center for commerce and services in east-central Vermont, rooted in a precision manufacturing heritage tied to the machine tool industry. The Black River drops through downtown in a series of waterfalls, and the historic core is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today the town's economy centers on Springfield Hospital, the Vermont State Office Building, and a newer tech-oriented presence at the Black River Innovation Campus. The population has declined slightly from recent census counts, continuing a gradual contraction from the town's manufacturing peak. The town has invested in town-wide fiber-optic internet and brands itself as "Reinvented," signaling an effort to diversify beyond its industrial past.
Against that backdrop, the housing market in the school's zip code is moderate by Vermont standards. Typical home values sit below the state benchmark, making the area relatively affordable for Windsor County. Rents are modest, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost runs close to typical rent, suggesting a market where buying and renting are within reach for working families. Countywide, listing inventory has risen recently, and homes are spending longer on the market than they did a year prior, giving buyers more room than in tighter periods.
Academically, Union Street's state assessment results from the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program tell a mixed picture. In English language arts, proficiency rates climb steadily from third grade through fifth, with the highest grade reaching a level where roughly a third of tested students met or exceeded proficiency. Math results are weaker across all three grades, with the fourth grade in particular showing a low share of students reaching proficiency. Fifth-grade math improves relative to fourth but remains below the ELA results for the same grade. Science is tested only in fifth grade at this school, and about a third of those students reached proficiency. Average scale scores in ELA rise from third through fifth grade, which suggests some growth as students move through the building, though the math scores are flatter across grades.
These are not strong proficiency numbers, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school. It is worth asking how the building supports students who arrive below grade level and what intervention or tutoring structures exist, particularly in math. At the same time, the data represents a single year, and the school is in the midst of a broader district effort to renovate and expand its elementary facilities, including Union Street itself. That construction may reflect a commitment to improving the learning environment, though it also means families should expect some disruption during the work.
The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of students identifying as Asian, Black, Hispanic, or two or more races. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Union Street among schools serving a higher-need population. The school does not report individualized education program counts or English learner data in the available dataset, so those shares are unknown here. Enrollment is evenly distributed across the three grades, and the total population is moderate for an upper-elementary school in a town of this size.
Information on staffing ratios, course access, discipline, attendance, and chronic absenteeism was not available in the data provided. Title I status was also not reported. The comparison set against other Windsor County districts could not produce a proficiency index or graduation comparison for this school, partly because it serves only elementary grades and partly because the cohort of comparable schools was too small to generate a reliable relative measure. Graduation rates are not applicable to a grade three-through-five school, and chronic absenteeism data was not reported.
What the picture does show is a small upper-elementary school in a working Vermont town with a proud industrial history and an active civic life, serving a population with real economic needs, posting modest academic results, and undergoing physical renovation. For a family weighing this school, the strongest next step is a direct conversation with the administration about how the building supports academic growth, especially in math, and how the ongoing expansion project will affect students day to day.
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