Summary
Russell Elementary School is a PK–5 school at 750 Columbia Road in Dorchester, MA, serving 356 students as part of Boston Public Schools, a district that ranks 299th of 351 districts in Massachusetts (15th percentile, 1 star). Russell's own 2025–2026 rank is 808th of 899 schools statewide — the 10th percentile, 1 star — capping a long slide from the 31st–32nd percentile in 2015–2016 and 2018–2019, a brief recovery to the 25th–26th percentile in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023, and a fall to the 9th–10th percentile in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026.
On the 2025–2026 MCAS, proficiency sits below both the district and the state: ELA 25% (Boston 29.41%, Massachusetts 40.03%), mathematics 11.29% (29.12% and 41.11%), and science 12.12% (24.94% and 40.98%). Mathematics is the sharpest weakness — 11.29% is the second lowest among nearby schools, just above Clap Elementary School's 11.11%. Grade-level results are most worrying in the upper grades: 5th grade posts ELA 18.18%, math 9.09%, and science 12.12%, while 4th-grade math is 7.5% and 3rd-grade math is 15.69%. Science has also dropped sharply, from 25% in 2022–2023 to 12.12% in 2025–2026. ELA is the relative bright spot, up from 19.83% last year but still below district and state.
Among nearby schools, Russell is above only Clap Elementary School (5th percentile) and Winthrop Elementary School (7th), similar to Mason Elementary School (12th), and below Perkins Elementary School (18th), Mather Elementary School (25th), Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School (25th), Dever Elementary School (26th), Conservatory Lab Charter School (30th), and Everett Elementary School (33rd). Subgroup results are uneven: African American students rank at the 47th percentile and English Language Learner students at the 45th, while special education sits at the 3rd percentile, low-income students at the 19th, and both gender groups at the 11th. Russell's student-teacher ratio of 11.8 is higher than most nearby Boston schools, and its 2020–2021 per-student spending of $25,735 is lower than most of them.
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