Waltham school question (Boston, Quincy, Newton: middle-class, schools, colleges)

[massgirl]

I did my research on here regarding Waltham and the Waltham school system and I still have a question. It seems like people on here recommend other school systems more highly than Waltham, even if they are LOWER on the Boston Magazine 2010 rankings. Is this just based on personal experience or "inside" info? For instance, I've seen people on here recommend Watertown schools over Waltham, but on the list Waltham is higher. Same for Melrose and others. Is there just a bias against Waltham since it's a "grittier" city, or is there something I'm not looking at in the rankings?

I'm actually not a huge fan of Waltham at all, but there are some really nice sections that I can tolerate.

Thanks!

[beth98]

I'm not certain of the exact formula Boston Magazine uses to rank the schools, but it looks like Waltham ends up high on the list because of spending. There is a huge drop in SAT scores, graduation rate, and % to college compared with school ranked similarly.

[goyguy]

...and often those kinds of lists, which should always be taken with a grain of salt, do give weight to per-pupil spending. In Waltham this would average out to be higher than in surrounding towns because of its considerably higher quantity of lower-income and/or immigrant households. (How many of either are to be found in Lexington, Weston, etc?) The more lunches that have to be subsidized, and the more bilingual aides who have to be hired, the higher the cost obviously.
I know of a family which had two sons who went on to Dartmouth from Waltham High, but that's the exception. Many of the "preppy" kids end up only being admitted to state, or second/third tier private, colleges. (Granted, some of that could be due to low parental expectations - or peer pressure to not achieve.) That's much the same story as it is in Quincy or Medford.
High-quality schools and affordable communities aren't always mutually exclusive. Sections of Newton such as Nonantum and West Newton continue to have a distinct blue-collar/middle-class feel, yet you can hardly do better from an academic standpoint.