The state education department Monday released the 2025 test results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, better known as MCAS.

Tests are administered to students in Grades 3-8 and 10. All tested grades take the math and English language arts exams. Students in Grades 5, 8, and 10 are also tested on science and technology/engineering. For the first time last year, Grade 8 students were tested in civics.

Explore test scores by district and school in the database below. Use the button to switch between district and schools, then use the search or select from the drop down menu to see the MCAS results and trends since 2019, plus student demographics and other data.

About the data

Students are given scaled scores on the test ranging from 440 to 560, with a score of 500 needed to meet expectations. Students scoring below 469 are considered not meeting expectations, students scoring 470-499 are partially meeting expectations, and students scoring 530 and above are exceeding expectations.

Until last year, students had to score above a certain scale score on the Grade 10 exam to graduate high school. Last fall, Massachusetts voters eliminated that requirement. The MCAS is now low stakes for all students, but it remains a major component of the state’s school and district accountability system. Schools and districts that perform poorly on the MCAS, in whole or among particular subgroups, can face state intervention or even a state takeover.

Students are also assigned “student growth percentiles” measuring their growth to academic peers. Students are given a percentile ranking from 1 to 99 comparing their score to students who scored similarly in previous years. Because the growth percentile requires prior results for which to compare, there are no growth percentiles for third-grade students or for civics

Some schools and districts are missing test scores for some years, grades, and subjects. That could mean they are new schools, or that scores were not reported to protect the privacy of small student populations.

The state reports student demographic information by district and school. In addition to race and ethnicity, the state publishes the percentage of students who are English learners, have disabilities, or are low income, meaning their families earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty line. High needs students are students who belong to any of those categories.

Design by Ryan Huddle, quality assurance by Nalini Dokula