Two Walpole Schools Among State's Top 100 Elementary Schools

WALPOLE, MA - The Old Post Road School in East Walpole and Walpole's Fisher School received high marks for being among the top 100 elementary schools in Massachusetts, according to a brand-new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

For the inaugural list, U.S. News published rankings and data on more than 80,000 public elementary and middle schools across the United States.

Schools are ranked at the state and district levels. The best charter schools and best magnet schools ranked as stand-alone categories.

U.S. News ranked the Old Post Road School at number 47 statewide, while the Fisher came in 76th in Massachusetts among elementary schools. The Elm Street School came in at 362, while the Boyden rounded out the Walpole elementaries at 636.

Walpole's TEC Connections Academy, a virtual private school in East Walpole, ranked 723. There were 964 schools included in the elementary school listing.

For middle schools, the Bird ranked 128th, while the Johnson placed at 140. The two schools are proposed to be combined into a new middle school building.

Nearby in Westwood, the Jones Elementary School ranked as the highest in the state among elementary schools in Massachusetts, according to the list. The Deerfield Elementary School was ranked ninth, while the Downey came in at number 39.

For middle schools, the Thurston in Westwood ranked 91st in the state, out of a total of 498 Massachusetts middle schools.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News used data from the U.S. Department of Education to analyze two areas at each school:

• Math and reading proficiency — or how well students perform on state assessments.
• Math and reading performance — or how well they perform compared with expectations.

The state assessment data used in the rankings is from the 2018-19 school year and, therefore, predates any effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on test-taking.
Nationally, California has 5,534 ranked elementary schools — the most of any state — followed by Texas at 4,446; New York at 2,211; Florida at 2,128; and Illinois at 2,038 schools.

California also has the most ranked middle schools with 2,319, followed by Texas at 1,942; Illinois at 1,243; New York at 1,219; and Florida at 997.

See the complete list of 2021’s Best K-8 Schools.