SFC | Early Education for All Campaign

Fast Facts
Select your city or town to find facts and data on the children and families in your community. Also, read an overview of Massachusetts: Fast Facts [PDF]. Please contact us if you have questions or require more information.

Lowell

Key educational benchmarks			Lowell	Massachusetts
% of third graders who score proficient or above in reading on MCAS			39.0%	61.0%
% of students graduating high school within four years			69.6%	83.4%
Early education and care
% of children under age 6 with all parents in the labor force			66.7%	66.9%
# of preschool-aged (3-5 yrs) children			4,466	224,901
% of preschool-aged children enrolled in an early education program			36.2%	70.0%
# of public school preschool programs			12	470
# of licensed center-based programs			9	2,202
# of licensed family child care providers			270	7,871
# of programs that are Massachusetts Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) Classroom Quality grantees			24	253
K-12 education¹
# of students enrolled in public school			13,548	953,369
% of public school students identified as low-income²			75.1%	35.2%
% of public school students whose first language is not English			41.1%	16.7%
% of public school students receiving special education services			15.3%	17.0%
% of public school kindergartners attending full-day kindergarten			100.0%	83.0%
# of full-day kindergarten classrooms supported by the MA Quality Full-Day Kindergarten grant			51	2,269

Child population	Birth-5		6-18
	Lowell	Massachusetts	Lowell	Massachusetts
# of children	9,243	442,592	17,928	1,074,498
% of children living below poverty³	23.9%	14.7%	24.9%	12.6%
% who are Black or African American	8.0%	7.4%	6.8%	7.3%
% who are Asian	23.6%	6.3%	24.0%	5.2%
% who are Hispanic or Latino	26.7%	16.9%	26.4%	13.9%
% who are White	34.6%	63.1%	37.9%	69.1%
% of students who are another race, or two or more races⁴	7.1%	6.2%	4.9%	4.4%

¹	Charter and vocational schools excluded from community data. Elementary data for districts with regional secondary schools, combined data for k-12 regional systems.
²	Low-income is defined as up to 185% of the federal poverty guideline, or $40,793 for a family of four.
³	Includes children birth to 17. The 2011 federal poverty guideline for a family of four is $22,350 per year.
⁴	Includes American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
Sources: Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, US Census 2010, American Community Survey 06-10, Opinion Dynamics Corporation