Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School

Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School is a PK–5 charter school at 6 Shirley Street in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, serving 293 students, in an area where most children attend Boston Public Schools, alongside two other nearby charters, Bridge Boston Charter School and Conservatory Lab Charter School.

In 2025–26 the school ranked 672nd of 899 ranked Massachusetts elementary schools — the 25th percentile, and its highest position in the ten years of history available. It spent about a decade in the 10th–17th percentile band, so this is a real milestone, though the school remains in the bottom quarter statewide. Notably, the three charter schools in this comparison group hold the top three rank positions, while the seven nearby Boston Public Schools hold the bottom seven. Science is the standout: at 39.5% proficient the school is essentially at the state average (41.0%), far above the 12.7% average of its comparison schools, and the highest of any school in the group. Math is the clear weakness at 18.8%, less than half the state rate (41.1%) and below the Boston district average.

The most compelling evidence of effectiveness is in the school's subgroup results, which rank well above its overall standing — markedly stronger for its Hispanic, African American, low-income and special-education students than comparable schools, with three years of improvement for each of those groups. Meanwhile, Dudley Street spends $20,112 per student (2020–21), the second-lowest of the eleven schools examined, with the second-highest student–teacher ratio (15.4). As a single-school district, Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School (District) is ranked separately and much lower, but that figure should not be read as contradicting the school-level trend. Smaller neighbors such as Russell Elementary School and Mason Elementary School score lower overall despite larger budgets.