Reading Public Schools Earn A- Grade In New National Ranking

READING, MA — The Reading Public Schools earned an overall grade of A- in a new batch of nationwide rankings and report cards this week from the education platform Niche.

Niche shared its rankings on Tuesday, giving Reading an A+ for sports and A rankings for academics, teachers and college prep. The district received a B+ rating for clubs and activities and B- ratings for resources, facilities and food.

Reading earned a B for its administration and a C- for diversity to generate the overall A- score.

Niche ranked Reading as the 69th best school district out of 219 in Massachusetts. Among other subcategories, the district was 12th for athletics out of 217 Massachusetts schools.

Niche awarded individual school-level scores as follows:

• Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School: A-
• Alice M. Barrows Elementary School: A-
• Reading Memorial High School: A-
• Wood End Elementary School: B+
• Birch Meadow Elementary School: B+
• Walter S. Parker Middle School: B+
• Joshua Eaton Elementary School: B+
• J. Warren Killam Elementary School: B

Outside of the Reading Public Schools, Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School received a C grade.

It earned an A for sports, an A- for diversity and a B for resources, facilities and food. The school received a B- for teachers, clubs and activities and a C for academics, college prep and administration.

Austin Prep received an A grade, with an A+ in clubs, activities, academics and sports. The school received an A for college prep, a B+ for teachers and a B- for diversity.

Austin Prep ranked 14th out of 38 Catholic high schools in Massachusetts.

Niche rankings this month classified 92,743 public schools, 30,112 private schools, and 11,820 school districts across the U.S.

In Massachusetts, top districts included the Weston Public Schools, the Hopkinton Public Schools and the Wellesley Public Schools.

The organization arrives at its grades and placements via analysis of a series of public data sets and reviews, as noted in a methodologies page on its website.

Niche said its rankings aim to provide families with quantitative and qualitative information to assess schools in their area or in areas they’re not yet familiar with.

See the Reading Public Schools report card here.

And see the full Niche rankings here.