Why everyone say Needham has good schools? (Boston, Newton: for sale, house prices)

[aa0406]

Based on this report The Best Public Schools in Boston 2011: In the Classroom and test scores from Department of Education, Needham schools are not so great. Considering house prices in the town, it's not worth the investment. Am I missing something?

[MikePRU]

First I want to say, I don't put any stock whatsoever in rankings made by Boston Magazine. It's fairly common knowledge that Boston Magazine is a pay-for-play magazine. Meaning if you pay them to advertise in their magazine then you get mentioned regularly in their articles and get glowing reviews within their pages. Eat at a few of the restaurants they claim are so wonderful and you'll realize this is true. This being said, I feel the magazine has little to no credability in ranking anything as their opinion is clearly for sale.

Second, take a look the individual test scores, etc. Boston Magazine uses to rank the schools. Do you see any that are hugely different between Newton & Needham? I see small differences in most categories and sometimes Needham has a better score than Newton (sometimes vice-versa). The only category I really see a huge difference in is the number of sports teams. However, Newton is a significantly larger city whereas Needham is a small town so of course Newton will have more sports teams.

When it comes down to it, we're lucky to live in a state that overall has very good public school systems (take a look at Florida's public school systems for some contrast). Clearly many of the top towns in this state have fairly comparable school systems and your child will get a great education in any of them. However, as many will point out to you, the education your child gets is only what they make of it. The effort they put in is important as well.

As far as worth the investment . . . take a look at home prices in Needham vs. Newton. Needham is much cheaper.