Three Westwood Elementary Schools Were Ranked in MA Top 40

WESTWOOD, MA - Three Westwood elementary schools received high marks for being among the top 40 in Massachusetts, according to a brand-new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. This included the Martha Jones Elementary School, ranked the top elementary school in the state.

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

For middle schools, the Thurston came in ranked 91 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.