Southbridge School System (Boston, Charlton: rental, house, high school)

[ThinkingThinking]

We found a house we like in Southbridge...

I've read many of the posts here on the boards ranging from the outright hostile toward Southbridge and Central MA in general, to positive... and to be honest im not interested in anyone's opinion regarding the town itself.

What I want to know is, how are the schools performing, academically, and how is the special education department (my son is ADHD) if anyone has had personal experience with such a thing.

Thanks in advance!

[Beachcomber4]

Rankings below indicate that their schools are not great. Some worse than others.

In regard to Special Ed Services and ADHD, many school systems do not put ADHD or ADD under the "special ed" umbrella and do not write IEP's or even 504's for that diagnosis. You can call and speak to the schools but most often, schools will not have those discussions without a rental agreement or P&S in hand. I do not know about Southbridge specifically.





SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL RESULTS

Note: "Placement overall" ranks schools by combining the percentage of students who were either "Advanced" or "Proficient" and comparing that number for each subject and grade with schools across the state. The ranking was done by Boston.com.
CHARLTON STREET
Grade/subject % Advanced % Proficient % Needs
Improv. % Warning/
Failing Students
tested Placement
overall
3rd English 7 44 41 9 175 641 of 980
3rd Math 17 42 21 21 175 544 of 981
WEST STREET
Grade/subject % Advanced % Proficient % Needs
Improv. % Warning/
Failing Students
tested Placement
overall
4th English 12 19 45 24 168 779 of 967
4th Math 11 25 37 26 169 685 of 967
5th English 10 36 39 16 174 693 of 896
5th Math 18 27 35 20 173 580 of 897
5th Science 9 22 47 23 172 654 of 897
MARY E. WELLS JR. HIGH SCHOOL
Grade/subject % Advanced % Proficient % Needs
Improv. % Warning/
Failing Students
tested Placement
overall
6th English 3 33 42 22 144 507 of 565
6th Math 4 22 37 37 145 517 of 565
7th English 9 45 32 14 152 355 of 466
7th Math 6 20 32 42 155 386 of 466
8th English 8 56 25 10 154 387 of 464
8th Math 10 16 27 47 155 380 of 464
8th Science 0 18 50 32 155 367 of 464
SOUTHBRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL
Grade/subject % Advanced % Proficient % Needs
Improv. % Warning/
Failing Students
tested Placement
overall
10th English 6 63 28 2 82 275 of 353
10th Math 17 36 35 12 81 296 of 351
10th Science 1 43 42 14 77 269 of 341

[miu]

I have a couple of friends in their early 20's that grew up in Southbridge. I got the impression that their school system is pretty mediocre. But the worse thing to me was that there is nothing productive in the area for the teens to do after school hours. All they do is hang out and socialize. They party and pretty much all of them have slept with each other at one time or another. A regular Peyton Place. I would never raised kids in an area like Southbridge.

Being in Southbridge might work if the parents make a point of spending a lot of quality time with their kids and keeping them on the right path to adulthood.