Above: All three Southborough schools that qualified for rankings did well in US News & World Reports’ report. But one especially stood out.
Last week, US News & World Report ran its first ranking of elementary and middle schools in the country. Woodward School (grades 2-3) was ranked the 3rd best of all Massachusetts elementary schools.
One other Southborough schools made the top 25 in the state and one just missed.
Neary (grades 4-5) was ranked #21. Trottier was the 27th highest ranked middle school.
The magazine was unable to rank Finn School (grades PreK-1). (It doesn’t have the MCAS scores used for rankings.)
If you’ve read my coverage of past rankings, you know that I don’t give these things much credence. (What metrics should be used to judge the best and how to weight them always seems questionable.)
Still, it always feels good to get a good report. (And I know parents/taxpayers are aggravated when we get lower rankings than some nearby towns.) So, here are more details.
Rankings were by state only, and based on standardized testing. So MCAS Math and Reading scores from 2018-19 were the main factor.
Each school was shown to have ranked Well Above Expectations in Math Proficiency that year. Woodward also achieved that in Reading Proficiency. It was top ranked in Math and tied for #3 in Reading scores.
Below is data posted by US News for each Southborough K-8 school:
So, how did other area districts fare?
NSBORO’s Northborough public schools didn’t rank as well under the magazine’s methodology. Elementary schools ranged from #147 to #398. Melican Middle School ranked #157.
Looking at other neighboring towns that sometimes do well in high school rankings. . . some middle schools did better than the elementary schools that qualified to be ranked.
Hopkinton’s middle school ranked #17, but elementary schools ranked #50 & #57. Ashland ranked #28 for Middle Schools, but #556 for elementary. Shrewsbury’s Spring Street School ranked #4 in elementary schools. But the Town also had schools ranked #29, #117, and #183. Its middle schools were ranked #65 and #112.
