Pioneer Valley
1 high school and 1 elementary school in our rankings
Students from Bernardston, Leyden and Northfield attend Pioneer Valley schools, including Pioneer Valley Regional.
Ranks #203 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.
The Pioneer Valley Regional School District serves the towns of Bernardston, Leyden, and Northfield in Franklin County, in the northern reaches of the Connecticut River valley. The region is rural and hilly, with a character shaped by farmland, forests, and small village centers. Northfield is home to Northfield Mount Hermon, a historic independent boarding school founded in 1879 by evangelist Dwight L. Moody, and the Northfield area has long been associated with Moody's religious and educational legacy. Leyden is among the more affluent of the three towns by per capita income, while all three communities maintain a close-knit, small-town feel.
How it compares
- Strongest area: Attendance, in the top 36% of districts. Students attend 94.6% of school days, vs 93.7% for the average MA district.
- Area to watch: Graduation rate ranks in the bottom 9% of districts.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 19.3% in 2022 to 11.9% in 2025.
- Trend: Math MCAS is up 6.6 points since 2023 (29.5783% to 36.1364%).
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 Pioneer Valley
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 (Pioneer Valley Regional). "MA avg" is the average of all Massachusetts districts with high school data.
Students & classrooms
51.4% female · 48.2% 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 58 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
9.3 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 2.2% 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 Pioneer Valley with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district