Summary
Conley Elementary School is a small PK–6 school at 450 Poplar Street in Roslindale, serving 148 students as part of Boston Public Schools — a district ranked 299th of 351 in Massachusetts, which is important context for reading everything else. On its own trajectory, though, this is the school's strongest year in a decade: it reached the 30th percentile with 2 stars in 2025-26, up from the 10th percentile in 2018-19 and a 9-point gain in a single year. Classes are also getting smaller (8.5 students per teacher in 2022-23 down to 7.5 in 2024-25), and per-student spending rose 14.4% over two years to $30,656 in 2020-21.
Conley has the smallest classes and the second-highest spending among its nearby peers, yet it does not post the strongest results. Bates Elementary School, less than half a mile away, ranks at the 70th percentile with 4 stars, and Mozart Elementary School — similar size and grade span, 0.84 miles away — sits at the 65th percentile with 3 stars despite larger classes and lower spending. Conley's results also vary sharply by grade: third and fourth graders perform at or above state levels in reading and math (fourth-grade math hit 57.14% proficient), while fifth grade fell to 10.53% in reading, 0 in math, and 5.56% in science. That science figure is the school's most severe weakness — below the district's 24.94% and the state's 40.98% — but since science is tested only in fifth grade, it reflects one class's struggles rather than a schoolwide science program. Math overall (31.17%) beats the district average, while reading (26.67%) falls below it.
The clearest concern is the school's effectiveness ranking for low-income students, which sits at the 2nd percentile and has fallen over three straight years (14 → 11 → 2), far below Conley's overall 30th percentile. Special education results, by contrast, have climbed to the 21st percentile. Because grades hold only about 15–20 students, small changes in a handful of students can move these percentages significantly, so year-to-year swings deserve caution. Overall: a well-resourced, genuinely improving school with strong early grades and real gaps to address in the upper grades and for its lowest-income students.
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