Summary:
Arlington, Massachusetts is a high-performing suburban district serving grades K–12 across 10 public schools — seven elementary schools, two middle schools (Gibbs School for grade 6 and Ottoson Middle for grades 7–8), and one high school — with a combined enrollment of 6,013 students. The district is rated 17th of 351 in the state, in the 95th percentile, with 5 stars.
Every reported MCAS score at every school is above the state average, and most ranked schools hold 5 stars. Ottoson Middle is the strongest individual school, ranked 5th of 478 middle schools (99th percentile), with ELA at 77.43%, math at 76.18%, science at 77.60%, and civics at 82.66%. Arlington High ranks 16th of 353 high schools (95th percentile), posting ELA 78.19%, math 82.96%, science 73.62%, and physics 80%, with a 98.2% graduation rate and 0.5% dropout rate. Among elementaries, John A Bishop (39th of 899) and Brackett (44th of 899) lead, both with 5 stars.
Science is a district-wide strength: elementary science averages 78.98%, with John A Bishop at 89.23% and Brackett at 85.07%. There is still variation — elementary science spans 70.49% at Cyrus E Dallin to 89.23% at Bishop, and ELA spans 60.40% at M Norcross Stratton to 71.65% at Dallin. Several schools improved sharply: Thompson rose from 177th to 72nd, Brackett from 111th to 44th, and Stratton from 154th to 104th. Notably, Thompson has the lowest per-student spending ($16,024) yet ranks 72nd, while Peirce spends the most ($17,743) and ranks 53rd — spending and staffing show no simple link to outcomes. Free/reduced lunch data are unavailable for all schools.
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