Needham

Needham is a Massachusetts district with 8 public schools — 5 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high school — serving 5,493 students. Enrollment is concentrated at the high school, which has 1,633 students (29.7% of the total), while the five elementaries together teach 2,552 students (46.5%). The district ranks 20th of 351 Massachusetts districts, in the 94th percentile with 5 stars. Two caveats matter for parents: free/reduced lunch information is blank for every school, so socioeconomic comparisons are not possible, and per-student spending is from 2020-2021 while student-teacher ratios are from 2024-2025, so neither is a current figure.

The district's anchors are its secondary schools. Needham High ranks 11th of 353 high schools (97th percentile, 5 stars), with 10th-grade scores of 87.89% in ELA, 90.78% in math, and 72.10% in science, plus a 99.0% graduation rate and a 0.5% dropout rate. Pollard Middle ranks 18th of 478 middle schools (96th percentile, 5 stars). Among elementaries, Newman Elementary leads at 43rd of 899 (95th percentile, 5 stars), followed closely by Sunita L. Williams Elementary (70th of 899) and Broadmeadow (71st of 899), both 92nd percentile with 5 stars. District All Grades scores far exceed state averages: ELA 69.08 vs. 40.03, math 73.33 vs. 41.11, and science 67.13 vs. 40.98.

Performance is more variable at the elementary level. All five elementaries have All Grades math below the district's 73.33%, though above the state's 41.11%, and four of five exceed the district science average. William Mitchell fell from 95th percentile and 5 stars to 87th percentile and 4 stars, and John Eliot remains the lowest-ranked Needham school at 127th of 899 (86th percentile, 4 stars) — still well above state averages. High Rock School has no reported rank history, so no stars or trend are available. Grade-level swings are large, such as Sunita's 3rd grade math at 52.81% versus 4th grade math at 78.05%, suggesting cohort effects rather than uniform schoolwide differences.