Dartmouth
1 high school and 3 elementary schools in our rankings · serves Dartmouth
Ranks #116 of 328 Massachusetts school districts — top 36%.
MCAS is the share of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2026, grades 3–10 combined. Spending is total per-pupil expenditure in FY2024.
Dartmouth is a suburban-rural town in Bristol County, located on the South Coast of Massachusetts about 60 miles south of Boston and just west of New Bedford. The town's Dartmouth Public Schools serve the community through Dartmouth High School. Dartmouth is known for its extensive conservation land, including the Lloyd Center for the Environment and large tracts of woodland and farmland that give the town a semi-rural character. The town's Padanaram village, on the Apponagansett Bay waterfront, is a historic maritime area that has long been part of the local identity.
How it compares
- Strongest area: Attendance, in the top 40% of districts. Students attend 94.2% of school days, vs 93.7% for the average MA district.
- Area to watch: SAT scores rank in the bottom 44% of districts.
- Top school: Joseph Demello, #202 of 895 Massachusetts elementary schools.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 24.7% in 2022 to 13.4% in 2025.
- Trend: ELA MCAS is down 8.1 points since 2023 (53.2475% to 45.1737%); statewide it fell 3.9 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 Dartmouth
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 (Dartmouth High). "MA avg" is the average of all Massachusetts districts with high school data.
Students & classrooms
48.9% female · 51.1% 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 276 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
10.2 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 3.1% missed 20% or more of school days
About Dartmouth
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 Dartmouth with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district