Harvard’s schools rank 10th in the Boston area, according to Boston magazine’s 2017 listing of the region’s top 50 school districts. This year’s list differs from previous ones in that it ranks whole districts, rather than focusing only on specific high schools.
The magazine made its selection by comparing 125 school districts “within, or partially within, I-495.” So Harvard owes its inclusion to its small panhandle that projects east of Interstate 495.
Most of the schools in the top 10 have remained the same since last year. The Dover-Sherborn district kept the top position it has held for several years. Weston, Lexington, Wayland, Newton, Wellesley, and Harvard maintained their spots in the top 10, although they all moved down slightly when measured as districts rather than as high schools alone. The Bromfield School, for example, was ranked seventh in both 2015 and 2016.
Several school systems were new to the top 10 when measured as districts. Concord-Carlisle moved up from 12th place in 2016 to second this year. Westford moved from 22nd to sixth, and Manchester-Essex rose from 14th to ninth. Acton-Boxborough, Bedford, and Winchester all dropped out of the top 10 under the new measures.
“We are proud of our students, teachers, and leaders that keep our district ranking at the top of schools in Massachusetts and therefore the country,” Superintendent Linda Dwight wrote in an email. “We want to be sure that while maintaining high academic rigor, we are also helping students create balanced lives. We want to be sure that every student feels valued and safe despite political unrest, acts of hate and violence in the world, and increased weather-related calamities. The students are the future, and we are honored to create a positive learning environment for them and those to follow.”
Class size, test scores, and money matter
As in previous years, Boston magazine based its rankings on measures such as class size, student-to-teacher ratios, graduation rates, and percentage of graduates attending college. This year the magazine also returned to considering per-pupil spending, calling “a higher rate of spending per pupil more desirable.” Per-pupil spending had been dropped as a factor in the 2016 rankings.
Scores on standardized tests also played a large part in the rankings. In recent years only high school tests such as the SAT, Advanced Placement, and the 10th-grade MCAS were factored into the rankings. But because the magazine was attempting to evaluate whole districts this year, MCAS and PARCC scores for third, fifth, and eighth grades also became part of the comparison.
Two measures that appeared in the 2016 ratings were dropped this year: the number of college counselors in a high school and the number of varsity sports teams.
Charter schools were not included in the rankings. They operate under charters from the state and are independent of the school districts where they are located. In some earlier years, Boston magazine included both charter and noncharter public schools in the same list. But the 2015 list did not include charter schools at all, and in 2016 the magazine published a separate list of only its top 10 charter schools.
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