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Dudley, Massachusetts - 7 schools
An equity score of 26/100 ranks Dudley-Charlton Reg #286 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $16,997 per pupil, Dudley-Charlton Reg ranks #370 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
3,457
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$16,997
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Dudley-Charlton Reg operates 7 public schools serving 3,457 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 4 elementary, 2 combined, 1 high schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Worcester County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $16,997 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 40 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 39.9% local, 51.4% state, and 8.7% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 26/100, ranked #286 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (16 AP courses district-wide), a 364.1:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 23.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 78.1% White, 14.2% Hispanic or Latino, 3.0% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Dudley Elementary, with a diversity index of 42.9/100.
Its largest campus is Shepherd Hill Regional High, enrolling 942 students (27% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Mason Road School, at 290 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Shepherd Hill Regional High accounts for 27.1% of all Dudley-Charlton Reg student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Dudley-Charlton Reg-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Dudley-Charlton Reg school enrollment varies 3.2× across entities
Dudley-Charlton Reg school enrollment ranges from 290 students (lowest) to 942 students (highest), a spread of 652 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Dudley-Charlton Reg student-counselor ratio is 364:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Dudley-Charlton Reg chronic absenteeism rate is 23.7% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Dudley-Charlton Reg is typically wider than the Dudley-Charlton Reg-aggregate figure suggests.