Fall River
1 high school and 11 elementary schools in our rankings · serves Fall River
Ranks #271 of 328 Massachusetts school districts.
MCAS is the share of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2026, grades 3–10 combined. Spending is total per-pupil expenditure in FY2024.
Fall River is a city in Bristol County on the Massachusetts South Coast, located on the Taunton River near the Rhode Island border and roughly 50 miles south of Boston. The city is known for its textile manufacturing history, which played a central role in its growth during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and its many historic mill buildings remain visible today. The Fall River Public Schools serve the city's students, with B M C Durfee High School as the district's public high school. The city's waterfront location on Mount Hope Bay also gives it a distinct character among South Coast communities.
How it compares
- Best of its categories: Attendance, in the bottom 22% of districts. Students attend 91.5% of school days, vs 93.7% for the average MA district.
- Area to watch: Graduation rate ranks in the bottom 8% of districts.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 48.4% in 2022 to 27.2% in 2025.
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 Fall River
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 (B M C Durfee High). "MA avg" is the average of all Massachusetts districts with high school data.
Students & classrooms
48.7% female · 51.3% 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 866 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
14.2 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 8.6% missed 20% or more of school days
About Fall River
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 Fall River with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district