OT: How are the public schools in these towns N. of Boston.

I beleive in general the public school system in Massachusetts is very good. And as with any school, it is what the student puts in that really counts. That being said, there are numerous private schools in that specific area that are outstanding and will promote your children into a better secondary education. Have you tried contacting the Mass Board of education? Maybe they can give you some actual statistics to help your choice.

 

the only online stats i've seen regularly are the boston magazine periodic (annual?) evaluations.

the ma dept. of education site has info as well, but it's a ton of work to correlate it - and they don't "rank" anything per se.

in that general vicinity, i'd guess that andover is one of your best bets.

doody.

 

Try Boston Magazine archives . I recall annual school summaries listing Sat scores. spending etc.

By the way, we put our three kids through grammer school in West Peabody and moved to Topsfield for the Higly regarded Regional High School.

 

Coincidentally, this morning I saw on Fox25 news that this month's Boston Magazine is the "Best Schools" issue. Typically, there are lots of good stats in it. You'll have to go buy a copy, because they typically don't put that online (or at least not for awhile).

vty,

--Dennis

 

Interesting! I also moved from West Peabody to Boxford when my oldest approached high school age. At the time, Peabody High was on the national news due to problems! Could be explained, in part, by the then mayor Big Nick M. Nick went to the Big House shortly after!

 

boston.com has the statistics on MCAS by grade and district, but it's very difficult to find it on their site... try this:

http://www.boston.com/education/mcas/

we live in North Andover, but do not have kids yet; if all goes well we will in 7 or 8 weeks.. but even then it'll be a while before they hit school age. if I recall, the elementary school stats looked better than the later years. they did build a beautiful new high school a few years back.

have a look at the Eagle Tribune (Merrimack Valley newspaper) I assume you can search online for past stories, but it seems the North Andover schools are having quite a bit of financial problems - laid off a bunch of teachers this summer, and class sizes are going way up and they are getting rid of a bunch of programs. Also, the superintendant was recently kicked out - was having an affair with an employee and stupidly gave her a huge raise when nobody else got anything.

agreed that andover and boxford/middleton/topsfield are the best in that area.

 

hmmm that link was working for me a minute ago, and now I just went there to check out the most recent stats, and it's giving me problems.. sorry about that.

 

Don't rule out parts of Danvers....the schools are good there too.

 

Little late to this one but nevertheless....


I went to Peabody high a few years ago (well ok more than a few) and I know that since I left it appears to have gotten worse. They have had 2 scandals recently where teachers were molesting students, both of them science teachers. They also recently had the drama teacher skip town with a big chunk of change that the kids raised to take some trip. The problem in Peabody is that the west part is quite nice, but the south and central parts are not. But all the kids go to the same high school.

My office is in Groveland. Thats a real nice place as is Georgetown. We moved from North Andover a couple years back - N Andover is nice and they just build a very large very modern high school with excellent facilities. I believe Masconomet is supposed to be good and that is the school for Middleton and a couple other surrounding towns - maybe Boxford too?

 

Marblehead, Salem and now Swampscott all have new high schools...

 

i've heard very good things about bedford over the years - fwiw.

doody.

 

Heard good about Beford too. As for Swampscott, Salem and Marblehead, I would never in a million years send my kids to Salem high. Salem is one of those towns with a few nice parts and a lot of really seedy parts. Same with swampscott - some VERY nice areas and some real crap. Marblehead is nice but the problem with Salem and Marblehead is they are not near any major highways. Working on Rt128 is a bear if you live in Salem. You gotta drive sometimes 20-30 minutes just to get to Rt128 depending on where in Salem you are.

Another thing to consider about schools - West Peabody has some very nice elementary schools. The Higgins middle school was a good school too. Its only the high school I think is "sub optimal", but if the kid is 10 mos, then you have around 12 years before it becomes an issue. Many kids I went to school with never went to Peabody High and instead went to Bishop Fenwick or St. Johns Prep. Don't we do busing in MA too? Can't you choose to send your kids to just about any school these days?

Forgot to mention - you may want to consider North Reading (brand new school just built) and Stoneham. Not sure if it was mentioned before but I know N. Reading is good. Lynnfield is very good too but pricey. N Reading, Lynnfield and Stoneham are all a stones throw from Rt.128


P.S. Do you live in the area now? Or moving to this area? 128 is.... shall we say.... tedious in the morning commute. If you leave early or late you would be OK, but if you're headed south from the Peabody/Lynnfield area between 7am/7:30am to 9am, its gonne be real busy.

 

Lots of towns mentioned earlier have really nice areas and not so nice areas (Stoneham - even Marblehead). The question is whether or not the school system is up to par and, so I would check out Salem (128 is NOT 1/2 hr from ANY part of Salem) and some of the other towns mentioned earlier in the thread. Salem's school system has the benefit of some great teaching staff and $ from some extremely successful people both lately and in the past (ie Jack Welch - a Salem HS grad). I'm not necessarliy advocating Salem, but I wouldn't automatically rule it out, either.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

 

I commute from Mhead to downtown Boston (on 1a) and it takes me 45 mins. 60 if I leave at 8am. I can be at the airport in 20-25 mins for an early flight.

NB I leave right at the end of Mhead, so if you're in Swampscott, you can be in town in 35 mins.

 

I grew up in Peabody and have to agree, it wasn't that great. Look how i turn out after 12 years of Peabody's school system................ well the ones that know me.

Tewksbury, that's another story. I have been working there for 18 years and have seen it change. It still is a town, it's close to 93, the better part of Tewksbury is N.Tewksbury. School system must be good cause i get customers that are always telling me that's why they moved here. Plus i have seen the kids grow up and most of them turn up good kids.

Hope that helps.