The Bromfield School is again one of the top 10 public high schools in the Boston area, according to Boston magazine that published its 2016 rankings in the September issue. Bromfield stands seventh on the list, the same spot it held in the 2015 listings.
The magazine defined the Boston area as covering school districts “that lie within, or partly within, I-495.” So Harvard owes its inclusion to the small corner of town that projects to the east of I-495 along Stow and Finn roads.
In response to the rankings, Superintendent Linda Dwight wrote in an email, “We are proud of this recognition as it identifies some of our district’s traditional strengths. We also know that this rating is mainly a measure of our academic strengths, while we value other data points of success toward helping students to reach their highest potential.”
In a later interview, Dwight said being listed as one of the top schools “does a lot to advertise our schools and our town” and draw residents to Harvard. But once the students are here, she said, the schools want to offer them opportunities in art, music, drama, and sports as well as academics. She referred to the school district’s mission statement that emphasizes “balancing academic achievement with personal well-being in pursuit of individual dreams.”
While the magazine focused on high schools, Dwight emphasized that Bromfield’s academic success rests on a foundation laid by the Hildreth Elementary School. “It’s an achievement for the whole system,” she said.
An important benefit of the district’s academic reputation, Dwight added, is that it helps Harvard schools attract excellent teachers.
Most of the schools in or near the top 10 have remained the same since last year, though they may have moved up or down a place or two. Dover-Sherborn High School kept the top position it has held for several years, with Lexington, Weston, and Wayland following in order. Newton South, Wellesley, Bromfield, Acton-Boxborough, Bedford, and Winchester filled out the top 10 places.
The factors that Boston magazine took into consideration were average class size, student-to-teacher ratios, MCAS and SAT scores, number of college counselors and varsity sports teams, graduation rate, and percentage of graduates attending college. In previous years, the listing included per-pupil spending for each district, but that data does not appear in the 2016 listing.
In earlier years, Boston magazine included both charter and noncharter public schools in the same list. Last year’s list did not include charter schools at all. And this year the magazine published a separate list of only its top 10 charter schools.
School rankings vary widely from one list to another. For example, Boston magazine ranked Medfield High School 25th in the Boston area, well below Bromfield. But last spring U.S. News and World Report ranked Medfield fourth in the state, with Bromfield in 20th place. As Dwight said last year, each set of ratings is “a snapshot of one class,” and the differences among top schools are quite small, making it difficult to draw general conclusions.
This chart shows how Bromfield compares on some key measures to the top four Boston-area schools as ranked by Boston magazine this year. In addition to the factors on this chart, the magazine also figured in a school’s average SAT scores and the percentage of 10th-graders scoring proficient or higher on the MCAS tests. Other factors were the number of college counselors and of varsity sports teams. (Source: Boston magazine)
