Needham - Newman Elementary school question (Boston, Newton: real estate, homes, neighborhood)

[alvingx74]

Hello,

Prospective buyer and first time poster with two elementary school age kids. I’m looking at the Needham area, as it seems to fit the criteria for homes with a decent lot size, reasonable proximity to city/highways, and friendly neighborhood vibes. Anyone with direct experience on Newman Elementary school? Is the great schools 5 rating rubbish? What explains the rating and is there anything to be concerned about? How are the school
admin and PTA?

P.s. Also looking at Winchester, Lexington, Newton, Wellseley.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by alvingx74

Hello,

Prospective buyer and first time poster with two elementary school age kids. I’m looking at the Needham area, as it seems to fit the criteria for homes with a decent lot size, reasonable proximity to city/highways, and friendly neighborhood vibes. Anyone with direct experience on Newman Elementary school? Is the great schools 5 rating rubbish? What explains the rating and is there anything to be concerned about? How are the school
admin and PTA?

P.s. Also looking at Winchester, Lexington, Newton, Wellseley.

I live in the Newman school district and I know many people who also live in the district and send their kids to the school. Not only is the Great Schools rating of that school complete garbage but the site in general is garbage. Any website that boils down the performance of a school to a single number is giving you a number that's averaged down to the point of meaninglessness IMO. I've sent two kids to Newman and have had a very positive experience there. My kids are in private school this year because I wanted them to go full time in person to school but if it weren't for that they'd all three be at Newman this year.

If you talk to Needham residents what you'll find is that it's a town where every resident will tell you their school is the best one in town. They all have roughly the same class size, all the schools spend roughly the same amount per pupil, and all the schools teach to the same curriculum. The variation of the ratings on Great Schools is because of things like that a big portion of the SPED program in town is housed in Newman which brings down standardized test scores and therefore brings down the ratings.

The biggest difference in the Needham schools (and you can say this about most towns) is the physical plant. You can be in Sunita Williams Elementary which is a large, brand new building that just opened less than 2 years ago or the other end of the spectrum is the Mitchell School which is one of the oldest and smallest school buildings in town. This being said, the building doesn't seem to affect the level of teaching and the vast majority of people I know in town are very happy with their respective elementary school. Right now, the town is very much thinking about the next school building project but off the top of my head I can't recall if that would be Mitchell Elementary or Pollard (7th & 8th grade middle school).

In general your list of towns is great and of course is comprised of some of the most sought after addresses in the Boston suburbs. All of these towns have very well regarded school systems and you'd have a hard time making a wrong decision about where to live in any of these places.

Your real estate agent should really be a valuable resource for answers to such questions.