Best Public School Districts in Boston 2017


Methodology: We ranked the 125 school districts that lie within, or partially within, I-495. To compile the list, we collected the most recent available data provided on the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website (profiles.doe.mass.edu). For districts that report multiple lower grade levels individually, a weighted average score was used. This year some schools took the PARCC test in grades three, five, and eight, while others took the MCAS; the test each district primarily used is noted below. To calculate the rankings, George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College, compared each district’s data points to the overall average for all districts. He then applied a percentage weight to the standardized data for each district to create an aggregate “score” (we considered a smaller class size, a lower student-to-teacher ratio, and a higher rate of spending per pupil more desirable). The districts were ranked based on that score.