Up-Island Regional
2 elementary schools in our rankings
Students from Chilmark, Aquinnah and West Tisbury attend Up-Island Regional schools.
Ranks #84 of 328 Massachusetts school districts — top 26%.
MCAS is the share of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2026, grades 3–8 combined. Spending is total per-pupil expenditure in FY2024.
Up-Island Regional School District serves the towns of Chilmark, Aquinnah, and West Tisbury on the western end of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Cape Cod. Chilmark and Aquinnah are among the more affluent communities on the Island, with high single-family assessed values and substantial per capita income, reflecting their rural, coastal character. West Tisbury, the most inland of the three, is a largely agricultural and conservation-minded town known for its farms, fields, and the Polly Hill Arboretum. The region is notable as a small, rural district whose students attend secondary school elsewhere on the Island, and its towns are known for their historic village centers and preserved open spaces.
How it compares
- Strongest area: ELA MCAS, in the top 10% of districts. 52% of students in grades 3–8 met or exceeded expectations in 2026, vs 40% statewide in the same grades.
- Area to watch: Attendance ranks in the bottom 28% of districts.
- Top school: Chilmark Elementary, #72 of 895 Massachusetts elementary schools.
- Trend: Chronic absence has fallen from 38.9% in 2022 to 21.5% in 2025.
- Trend: Math MCAS is up 5.9 points since 2023 (48.3296% to 54.2641%).
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 Up-Island Regional
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.
Students & classrooms
46.8% female · 53.2% 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 53 full-time-equivalent teachers.
Attendance
12.1 days absent per student (MA avg 11) · 1.5% 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 Up-Island Regional with nearby districts
Side by side: test scores, spending, class size, home values and taxes. Distance is between district centers. Compare with any district