Charles E Brown Middle

Charles E Brown Middle is a grades 6–8 school at 125 Meadowbrook Rd in Newton Centre, MA, serving 713 students as one of four middle schools in the Newton district. In 2025–26 it ranked 13th of 478 middle schools statewide — the top 2.7% — with 5 stars, and it has earned 5 stars every year for a decade without ever falling below the 92nd percentile.

That consistency shows up in test scores. In 2025–26 MCAS results, 75.45% of Brown students were proficient in English language arts, 79.40% in math, 72.73% in science, and 71.24% in 8th-grade civics — leading the Newton district in every subject and running 31 to 38 points above the state average. Brown is the top-ranked middle school in Newton, ahead of F A Day Middle (30th), Bigelow Middle (43rd), and Oak Hill Middle (51st). Oak Hill Middle sits 0.11 miles away and spends nearly the same per student, yet Brown's advantage over it is 12.6 points in ELA and 10.3 in math. Outside Newton, Wellesley Middle (7th) is essentially tied with Brown, Pollard Middle (18th) is a near-peer, and Watertown Middle, Dedham Middle School, John W. McDevitt Middle School, and Ohrenberger School trail by 29 to 51 points.

Two things are worth watching. Brown's 6th-grade ELA score of 68.66 is its only grade-level result that is not first or second in Newton, while 8th grade is its strongest engine. Civics is its thinnest margin over the district and slipped slightly from the prior year. Class size is 10.4 students per teacher, and per-pupil spending of $23,743 is the highest among Newton's middle schools. Results are strong across nearly every subgroup the state reports, including female and male students (97th percentile), Hispanic students (96th), White students (95th), and special education and low-income students (90th each); the Asian student band is the one below the school's usual level, at the 77th percentile. Free/reduced-lunch data is suppressed for Brown and nearby schools, so economic context cannot be compared.