Gardner
1 high school and 1 elementary school in our rankings · serves Gardner
Ranks #292 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.
Gardner is a city in north-central Massachusetts, located in Worcester County roughly 20 miles north of the city of Worcester. Known historically as the "Chair City" for its long-standing furniture-making industry, Gardner has a mix of urban neighborhoods and surrounding rural and suburban areas. The Gardner Public Schools district serves the city through its single high school, Gardner High School. Gardner is also home to Crocker Park and the Gardner Museum of Art, which preserves the city's manufacturing heritage.
How it compares
- Best of its categories: Attendance, in the bottom 29% of districts. Students attend 92.4% of school days, vs 93.7% for the average MA district.
- Area to watch: SAT scores rank in the bottom 7% of districts.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 41.9% in 2022 to 26.7% in 2025.
- Trend: ELA MCAS is down 6.3 points since 2023 (26.1897% to 19.9067%); statewide it fell 4.2 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 Gardner
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 (Gardner High). "MA avg" is the average of all Massachusetts districts with high school data.
Students & classrooms
48% female · 51.7% male · 0.4% nonbinary
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 148 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
12.7 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 7.1% missed 20% or more of school days
About Gardner
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 Gardner with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district