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Old 08-17-2015, 02:56 PM
 
35 posts, read 71,627 times
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My husband and I live in central MA and are considering a move further west in MA. We have two children in elementary school and one starting middle school this year. We cannot figure out if the schools have a lower reputation and ratings because they are smaller towns with lower budgets and depressed economy or if the quality of teachers and systems are just not good. We realize that students have to work hard and do their best to achieve good grades in any school, but can anyone shed some light on the rest? One of the kids has autism ("higher functioning" if that matters) and currently goes to public school, but that may or may not change going forward. In general such info would help us decide if such a move is right for us. Thank you.
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Old 08-17-2015, 04:01 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,646 posts, read 28,501,980 times
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Originally Posted by 3each4me View Post
My husband and I live in central MA and are considering a move further west in MA. We have two children in elementary school and one starting middle school this year. We cannot figure out if the schools have a lower reputation and ratings because they are smaller towns with lower budgets and depressed economy or if the quality of teachers and systems are just not good. We realize that students have to work hard and do their best to achieve good grades in any school, but can anyone shed some light on the rest? One of the kids has autism ("higher functioning" if that matters) and currently goes to public school, but that may or may not change going forward. In general such info would help us decide if such a move is right for us. Thank you.
I guess you must have decided against Palmer, lol.

In WMass you more or less have to go for the more affluent towns, probably the same as anywhere else. You could try Wilbraham, Belchertown, East Longmeadow, Northampton, South Hadley. Belchertown has come up in the world. None of the above is very convenient for travel to anywhere else except Northampton, which has rte 91. You need to visit the towns and get a feel for them. There are lots of other towns but if you were considering Palmer, these are more in the general area and a few steps above.
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Old 08-19-2015, 08:39 PM
 
35 posts, read 71,627 times
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LOL I guess you're right ;-) Thank you for your input, it does help since we're not familiar with that area. Is Ware in that area too? I've seen a few listings that would potentially be a good fit for us and the schools are about a 5 or so.
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Old 08-19-2015, 08:50 PM
 
35 posts, read 71,627 times
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Ok I found info about Ware in some other threads. Let's forget I asked LOL I feel bad for the folks who are trying to sell homes in these towns that nobody seems to want to move to. What about places like Leominster, Gardner, Southbridge, Spencer? I don't know much about them except what I've seen as we have driven through them and a little here and there from folks on the forum or occasionally in person. For as long as I can remember, Framingham has had a really bad reputation, but yesterday someone told me that a colleague who is a well respected professional did his research on towns and schools and actually chose to buy a home for his family in Framingham (the north side if that makes any differnce). I was quite surprised based only on the hearsay I knew of.
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Old 08-19-2015, 09:02 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,646 posts, read 28,501,980 times
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Originally Posted by 3each4me View Post
Ok I found info about Ware in some other threads. Let's forget I asked LOL I feel bad for the folks who are trying to sell homes in these towns that nobody seems to want to move to. What about places like Leominster, Gardner, Southbridge, Spencer? I don't know much about them except what I've seen as we have driven through them and a little here and there from folks on the forum or occasionally in person. For as long as I can remember, Framingham has had a really bad reputation, but yesterday someone told me that a colleague who is a well respected professional did his research on towns and schools and actually chose to buy a home for his family in Framingham (the north side if that makes any differnce). I was quite surprised based only on the hearsay I knew of.
Yeh, forget about Ware completely, that place gives me the creeps. I don't know anything about those other towns. To me they are just signs that I see on the MassPike. I think I was in Gardner once--nah. I don't think Spencer is any good either. I wish someone else who is a lot more familiar with these more central Mass towns would come along.

On another thread they were saying there are still good parts of Framingham. I've been to Framingham about twice, that's all. I know more about Western Mass--the Connecticut River Valley area, but very little about central Mass.
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Old 08-20-2015, 08:28 AM
 
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OP, you seem to be all over the place-- western, central, eastern (Framingham). In Framingham, the north side makes a huge difference; it's all middle class, professional class neighborhoods north of Route 9. And as a large town with a huge tax base Framingham would have lots of services for special needs kids. Spencer, Gardner, Southbridge are all central MA. If you want nice towns in W Mass, not too rural and not depressed former milltowns, think of Wilbraham, East Longmeadow, West Springfield, Westfield, Southampton, Ludlow, Granby, Hadley and South Hadley, Belchertown. All those could be good and more affordable than top tier towns of Northampton, Amherst and Longmeadow.
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Old 09-04-2015, 12:43 PM
 
35 posts, read 71,627 times
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Thank you for all the feedback. I'm from the South Shore until our move here 7yrs ago and I'm not familiar with the towns between here western MA so it's reasonable to say that my thoughts are all over the place where towns are concerned. He travels so much for work throughout MA, RI and CT that he's pretty flexible. We'd considered moving far out of state either to the midwest or down south; having family in both, but right now that's not the plan.
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Old 09-05-2015, 05:24 AM
 
24,526 posts, read 18,054,473 times
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Originally Posted by in_newengland View Post
In WMass you more or less have to go for the more affluent towns, probably the same as anywhere else.
Yep. This is true anywhere. You start by filtering by household income. School systems that mostly have successful, college educated parents who tend to be more engaged in their children's education invariably do better than school systems with less of those.



Pelham just east of Amherst and Longmeadow as the "good" Springfield suburb are the only top-100 household income towns in Western Mass unless you're out in the Berkshires where there are a few trustafarian towns.

You have to look a bit harder at college towns because students declare residence there and drag the average down. There are also towns with split demographics where the elementary school in the "nice" part of town is fine but the one by the housing project is frightening. You then have the problem of middle school and high school.
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