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Old 03-29-2018, 09:56 AM
 
Location: North Andover
550 posts, read 673,571 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Massback View Post
Can anybody tell me which site you use to see the school rankings. Niche, school digger? which one. Coz when I checked newton schools, there is a vast difference in the rankings of newton schools in niche and school digger. Which site to use.
This is the best site in my opinion in regards to ratings. School and District Profiles
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Old 03-29-2018, 10:05 AM
 
4,998 posts, read 3,847,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Massback View Post
Can anybody tell me which site you use to see the school rankings. Niche, school digger? which one. Coz when I checked newton schools, there is a vast difference in the rankings of newton schools in niche and school digger. Which site to use.
The only one I don't trust is US News as it doesn't seem to jive with the majority of studies/rankings I see elsewhere. They also change drastically year to year. Framingham is a better school district than Wayland, or Hingham, or Westford, or Westborough? Woof does that feel pretty off to me, regardless of metric. This isn't a shot at Framingham, but folks often move to neighboring towns for better schools.. Just not sure US News has any kind of intel/pulse on a specific region.

Stanford University/New York Times rankings by test score vs. the National average: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-compares.html
Niche Best School Districts 2018:
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/bes...on-metro-area/

Boston Magazine has an annual ranking of schools that does a good job. I'd check in with those, too.

Newton North/Newton South are incredible districts. As is every town on your list. Keep in mind, a site like GreatSchools compares towns within the state, so a 7 in Massachusetts (many of the schools in Andover) would likely be a 9 or 10 on a National scale. I mean, it's pretty well documented that Massachusetts outperforms the rest of the country, and excellent school systems are plentiful in Greater Boston.

Last edited by mwj119; 03-29-2018 at 10:29 AM..
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Old 03-29-2018, 01:46 PM
 
24,510 posts, read 17,988,287 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Massback View Post
Can anybody tell me which site you use to see the school rankings. Niche, school digger? which one. Coz when I checked newton schools, there is a vast difference in the rankings of newton schools in niche and school digger. Which site to use.
Median household income is a better predictor than any of the school ranking web sites. Towns with college educated professional parents have strong school systems. After you use that as your selection criteria, you then have to look at the overall vibe of the school system and decide if it's right for your children. A lot of people opt out of the hyper-competitive school systems with the tiger parents. Some decide that they'd rather live in a more mixed income town where everyone in the school isn't a clone.
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Old 03-29-2018, 02:54 PM
Status: "On my way to sunny South Carolina" (set 1 day ago)
 
Location: Massachusetts & Hilton Head, SC
9,916 posts, read 15,482,556 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sal1181 View Post
This is the best site in my opinion in regards to ratings. School and District Profiles
This. Most of the other sites have agendas. This one gives you the straight facts.
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Old 03-29-2018, 03:17 PM
 
Location: New England
2,190 posts, read 2,211,197 times
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Though test scores don't tell the whole story. Honestly home life and soci-economic background affects the outcome of students more then the school itself and the quality of teaching.

So any district with a more diverse (income wise) student body is going to have lower scores. Does that mean your child will get a worse education, no.
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Old 03-29-2018, 03:32 PM
 
4,998 posts, read 3,847,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseyB View Post
This. Most of the other sites have agendas. This one gives you the straight facts.
True, but I think other data sets are equally as important as standardized test results. The amount of extracurricular activity, first-hand look at sense of community, etc. I'd consolidate all of them and use is at a secondary resource if you absolutely cannot decide between two communities.

At the $1.2M price point, those suburbs will float towards the top of any ranking.
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Old 03-29-2018, 09:06 PM
 
317 posts, read 328,562 times
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It’s Newton, so it’s gonna be better than 99.9% of schools in the country. Same with Wellesley, Needham, Lexington, Weston, Winchester, Belmont, Brookline, and a few further out that you’re not interested in. No need to worry about choosing the best. It’s like, which Ivy is the best. It’s subjective. You just go to each town and pick the one that you like the most based on feeling, house, downtown, commute, etc.
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Old 03-29-2018, 10:01 PM
 
880 posts, read 810,170 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Massback View Post
Thanks sawyer. To answer some of your questions. We want a medium sized house (around 3000 sqft) with 4 br. Lot can be any size as long as we have some grounds for kids to run around. We are not city kind of people, so suburbs or inbetween. We dont necessarily want new construction and are ready for some rehab or work to get more bang for our buck. We will be working near BCH.
Most older houses in the Boston suburbs are generally around 1700 - 2400 sqft. The most common combo is 1800sqft + 300sqft sun room addition. Your best bet is to find one around that size and renovate the attic or basement to get to 3000. An addition would be too much headache to take on.

I've seen quite a few run-down (or poor quality) homes in Newton sell for around 750k, they are then torn down and a new home is built for around 400k. This could be another ave, but you end up competing with builders looking to do the same for a quick buck.
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Old 03-29-2018, 10:33 PM
 
295 posts, read 314,114 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwj119 View Post
Admittedly, I've never done the drive. By way of miles, it's close, but I understand that doesn't tell the story.

As for the Westwood suggestion, it's a good one. Being that there are choices in Needham at that price range, though, I'd give the nod to Needham over Westwood. And although most would agree that spending $1.2M in Natick seems a bit high, it's a good tier-two option.

I drove a few times from the Milton area to Longwood during morning rush hour. From my recollection it’s around 30 minutes to Longwood, maybe a little less through local roads. I would say similar time as driving from Newton so your suggestion is not a bad one.

To me, Commute time and type of commute is very important. Less commute = more time with family. Taking public transportation = less stress and more time to relax or work/pay bills/order groceries on mobile devices. Is an extra 30 minutes commute a day worth it to go to #1 school in MA as opposed to #3 but spending less time with family? Is a 30 minute commute driving really better than one that is 45 minutes on public transportation? There is so much more you can do now on your phones where it makes any type of public transportation(bus, train, subway) far superior than driving in my opinion.

Also, it may make sense to actually pick a few towns and try to commute, preferably on a monday, to see what it’s like but Newton sounds like it makes the most sense.

Last edited by Steephill2; 03-29-2018 at 10:59 PM..
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Old 03-30-2018, 07:18 AM
 
Location: Needham, MA
8,525 posts, read 13,906,155 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steephill2 View Post
I drove a few times from the Milton area to Longwood during morning rush hour. From my recollection it’s around 30 minutes to Longwood, maybe a little less through local roads. I would say similar time as driving from Newton so your suggestion is not a bad one.
My apologies. I've driven from North Quincy to Longwood a few times and that was well over an hour. I assumed that it would be about the same from Milton and I confirmed it using Google Maps. Another try with Waze shows it might be more like 45-60 minutes.
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