Despite an overall drop in achievement scores as schools struggled with the challenge of teaching through a pandemic last year, students at Tri-Town schools outperformed the state average in standardized tests, according to state MCAS data released on Sept. 21.

Overall, about 40% of Massachusetts students met or exceeded expectations on MCAS tests administered last year compared to about 55% of Tri-Town students.

ORR High School’s 10th grade class, the only high school grade to take the exam last year, rated the highest overall of the Tri-Town schools according to the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the exam with 75.5%, landing it in the top 20% of high schools in the state.

Rochester’s Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School saw 60.5% of its 10th graders meet or exceed expectations on the exam, putting it in the 55th percentile of high schools in the Commonwealth.

Among Tri-Town elementary and middle schools, students at Mattapoisett’s Old Hammondtown scored the highest on exams with 70.67% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, putting it in the top 5% of elementary and middle schools in the state by that metric.

Center School ranked slightly lower with 55% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, however, the school still ranked in the top 23% of Massachusetts elementary and middle schools.

Overall, Mattapoisett school district ranked as the 18th best out of 355 school districts in the state, according to that metric.

Rochester Memorial School ranked third best among Tri-Town elementary and middle schools with a rate of 53.33% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, putting it just outside the top 25% of elementary and middle schools in the state.

Marion’s Sippican School was narrowly outperformed by Rochester with 52.66% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, putting it at about the 73rd percentile in the state rankings.

Finally, Old Rochester Regional Junior High had the lowest rate of students meeting or exceeding expectations within the Tri-Town with 45.67%, enough to put it just above the 40th percentile statewide.

Of the three subjects that MCAS tests for — English, math, and science — statewide averages showed English as the strongest subject with 46% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, science as the second highest at 42%, and math as the weakest at 33%.

In the Tri-Town, science was the strongest subject at 62.25%, followed by English at 58.25%, and math at 44.75%.