Ayer Shirley School District
1 high school and 2 elementary schools in our rankings
Students from Ayer and Shirley attend Ayer Shirley School District schools, including Ayer Shirley Regional High School.
Ranks #136 of 328 Massachusetts school districts — top 42%.
MCAS is the share of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2026, grades 3–10 combined. Spending is total per-pupil expenditure in FY2024.
Ayer and Shirley form the Ayer Shirley Regional School District in north-central Massachusetts, with Ayer lying roughly 35 miles northwest of Boston in Middlesex County and Shirley adjoining it to the north. The district's regional high school serves students from both communities. Ayer grew up around the Fitchburg Railroad and its historic depot, and it remains a small, mostly residential town with a mix of village centers and open land. Shirley is a rural-leaning community with farmland, woodlands, and conservation areas, and it is home to the Shaker Lane and Shirley Shaker village history.
How it compares
- Strongest area: Attendance, in the top 19% of districts. Students attend 94.6% of school days, vs 93.7% for the average MA district.
- Area to watch: SAT scores rank in the bottom 40% of districts.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 22.7% in 2022 to 13.1% in 2025.
- Trend: ELA MCAS is down 8.4 points since 2023 (49.4621% to 41.0769%); statewide it fell 4.1 points.
A district's overall rank is the average statewide percentile of its ranked schools, with a 10% discount for single-school districts. Category standings compare the average of each district's ranked schools and count only districts with data. How we rank
Schools in Ayer Shirley School District
We rank high schools that report SAT results and elementary schools with grade 3 MCAS results, so some of the district's schools (middle schools, for example) aren't listed. Elementary ELA and Math are 2024–2026 averages of grade 3 results.
MCAS results
Share of students meeting or exceeding expectations, compared with the state. Statewide 10th-grade results dropped after 2024, when passing the MCAS stopped being a graduation requirement. There was no test in 2020.
High school results
Averages of the district's ranked high schools (Ayer Shirley Regional High School). "MA avg" is the average of all Massachusetts districts with high school data.
Students & classrooms
47% female · 53% male
Spending & teachers
Spending is total per-pupil expenditure from all sources. Dollar figures aren't adjusted for inflation. "MA median" is the middle district in each year; small districts can spend far more per student, so the median is a fairer yardstick than the average. Salary is the average across 140 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
9.3 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 2.7% missed 20% or more of school days
About the towns
What could you afford here? · All towns A–Z
Town figures are FY2026 averages for single-family homes from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Assessed values usually run below recent sale prices. "MA median" is the median of the state's 351 towns.
Compare Ayer Shirley School District with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district