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New high school tops Boston magazine’s annual rankings
Rankings were calculated for over 150 high schools in the I-495 area.
The annual rankings of Greater Boston’s best high schools, as calculated by Boston magazine, was released this week.
A new school has claimed the top spot: Weston High School. According to the most recent state data, which the rankings are based on, Weston High has an enrollment of 638 and a graduation rate of 100 percent. Its average class size is 11.7 and its student-to-teacher ratio is 11.3:1.
Winchester High School came in second. Hingham High School, Manchester Essex Regional High School, and Wayland High School rounded out the ranking’s top five. Last year’s number one ranked school, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, fell to sixth on the 2022 list. Over 150 schools were ranked.
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The magazine’s rankings only cover towns or districts within, or partially within the area of I-495. Highly specialized schools, charter schools, and schools reporting insufficient information were not ranked.
To assign each school a final ranking, Babson College statistician George Recck analyzed multiple data points for each school. He compared these to the overall average for all schools on the list. Recck applied a percentage weight to the standardized value for each school, in order to determine a final score for each school, according to the magazine.
Some of the information taken into consideration includes MCAS scores, SAT scores, Advanced Placement test scores, graduation rates, educator evaluations, and college attendance rates.
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“As the challenges of the pandemic continue to amplify the opportunity gap in education, there has been increased scrutiny over the factoring of test scores, which tend to be correlated with higher family incomes and are increasingly regarded as an inadequate measure of student achievement,” the publication wrote.
The chart also includes median household income and home prices so that readers can see how that information correlates to student achievement. Median home prices are provided by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and MLS Property Information Network. They are from 2021. Median household incomes are provided by Census’s American Community Survey, and they are from 2016 to 2020. This information was not factored into the final rankings.
Boston magazine also published specific lists that rank schools based on four categories: average class size, “bang for your housing buck,” student-to-teacher ratio, and percent of teachers with exemplary ratings.
Carver Middle High School had the smallest average class size, with 6.8 students per class. Boston Latin School had the largest average class size, at 24.5 students per class.
The “bang for your housing buck” list includes the eleven schools whose high school rankings most significantly surpassed the ranking of their respective median home price. They are listed alphabetically and include schools like Boston Latin School, Maynard High School, and Nashoba Regional High School.
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Brighton High School and Rockport High School tied for the best student-to-teacher ratio with 7.6:1. Mary Lyon Pilot High School, also in Brighton, had the second-best ratio with 8:1.
TechBoston Academy in Dorchester had the highest percentage of teachers with an exemplary rating, with 60 percent. Boston Latin School came in second with 51.8 percent.
See the rest of the rankings here.
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