Rank these North Shore High Schools (Boston, Lynn: real estate, 2013, renting)

[Boston_Burbs]

Newburyport
Triton
Pentucket
Georgetown
Ipswich

I am intrigued to see the results. Newburyport ranks on top, when you look at the Boston Magazine or US News but seems to rank lower when you review city-data posts.

[nshorema]

I just went through a similar area search, so I looked at 2012 MCAS scores. I know, not the greatest measure of how good a school is, but better than nothing. Here they are for english/math/science 10th grade. They are simply ranked numbers out of 350 or so schools total. Ipswich and Pentucket seem about a toss up and the rest you can interpret for yourself, but all of them would be roughly in the top 50% of all schools in Massachusetts. So not a 'bad' school on the list in my book. In a list like this literally a 2-3 point difference in score could drop a given school a fair amount down the list, but you can at least get a general idea.

Ipswich 29/65/76
Pentucket 74/57/52
Newburyport 99/57/45
Georgetown 99/111/85
Triton 163/149/148

For comparison, here are some other North Shore towns with generally highly regarded schools:
Hamilton-Wenham 29/35/36
Manchester-Essex 74/17/24
Lynnfield 74/73/15
Marblehead 29/57/76

And the 'gold standard'?
Lexington 1/17/6

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by nshorema

I just went through a similar area search, so I looked at 2012 MCAS scores. I know, not the greatest measure of how good a school is, but better than nothing. Here they are for english/math/science 10th grade. They are simply ranked numbers out of 350 or so schools total. Ipswich and Pentucket seem about a toss up and the rest you can interpret for yourself, but all of them would be roughly in the top 50% of all schools in Massachusetts. So not a 'bad' school on the list in my book. In a list like this literally a 2-3 point difference in score could drop a given school a fair amount down the list, but you can at least get a general idea.

Ipswich 29/65/76
Pentucket 74/57/52
Newburyport 99/57/45
Georgetown 99/111/85
Triton 163/149/148

For comparison, here are some other North Shore towns with generally highly regarded schools:
Hamilton-Wenham 29/35/36
Manchester-Essex 74/17/24
Lynnfield 74/73/15
Marblehead 29/57/76

And the 'gold standard'?
Lexington 1/17/6

What made you pick Rowley?

[nshorema]

Just renting, have a home under contract in another town...finally after a long search. We'll see how it pans out.

[eiffel18]

where did you land, nshorema?

[konfetka]

Originally Posted by nshorema

I just went through a similar area search, so I looked at 2012 MCAS scores. I know, not the greatest measure of how good a school is, but better than nothing. Here they are for english/math/science 10th grade. They are simply ranked numbers out of 350 or so schools total. Ipswich and Pentucket seem about a toss up and the rest you can interpret for yourself, but all of them would be roughly in the top 50% of all schools in Massachusetts. So not a 'bad' school on the list in my book. In a list like this literally a 2-3 point difference in score could drop a given school a fair amount down the list, but you can at least get a general idea.

Ipswich 29/65/76
Pentucket 74/57/52
Newburyport 99/57/45
Georgetown 99/111/85
Triton 163/149/148

For comparison, here are some other North Shore towns with generally highly regarded schools:
Hamilton-Wenham 29/35/36
Manchester-Essex 74/17/24
Lynnfield 74/73/15
Marblehead 29/57/76

And the 'gold standard'?
Lexington 1/17/6

MCAS rankings can be misleading, because they imply there is a difference between number 1 and number 20, however there are 22 schools with 100% proficiency in English 10th grade for 2013, but there can only be one number one. The ranking doesn't reflect individual results, no matter how good schools are they cannot all be number one. So what rankings can do is help you identify top 50% or 20%, but overestimate the gap.

Among the top 22 schools with 100% proficiency there are a lot of Charter schools, and unexpected towns such as Amesbury, Malden and Revere. Essex Tech (available to students from a number of Essex county towns) is also there. Salem Charter school, as well, but no Lexington.

Next 24 schools have 99% proficiency in English 10th grade. On the list: Concord, Dover, Needham, Wellsley, Winchester, and Rockport from the North Shore. So we covered 46 schools, and haven't gotten to most on the NS yet.

Next 23 schools with 98% proficiency: Acton, Dover, Andover, Brookline, Hamilton, Manchester among the popular ones.

As you can see the difference between number 1 and number 50 is 2%, therefore one is not significantly better then the other. Massachusetts schools are extremely good, and in my opinion people are making a mistake by relying on rankings, but they can be usefull to real estate agents.

It can be helpful to compare to state average, which is 91/80/71 percent proficiency in English, Math, Science. For English it is pretty high, this means 50% of schools are achieving proficiency over 90% in English, which is a pretty good accomplishment for the state. Coincidentally in a district with scores close to state average, you will have house prices close to average. So you would be paying 20, 30 or 50% more for a house, so that your child would have a 2, 5 or 10 percent chance of scoring higher on a test in 15 years (assuming you have a 1 year old).

It's human nature to compare and look for the best, but it carries an assumption that those which are not the best, are bad. That would lead people to overlook many good options.

[nshorema]

Originally Posted by eiffel18

where did you land, nshorema?

Hamilton

[in_newengland]

We don't seem to know where the OP ended up but I just wanted to say that when you get an area where all the schools are good, it doesn't make much difference to try to further differentiate one from another in terms of which one is best.

Statistics can be misleading and even if one school rates highly it may not be the best for for that particular child. There is only so much that can be measured. I think it's more important to make sure your family fits into that town and feels at home there. If a child is smart, they will do well in almost any school, especially in any of the schools on the list. Maybe if you have a need for a really good music or art program, for instance, it might make some difference but in general, no.