Summary:
ZIP code 02451 contains two public elementary schools — Douglas MacArthur Elementary School and Thomas R Plympton Elementary School — both serving grades K–5 in the Waltham district, with no middle, high, or alternative schools listed in this ZIP. Both schools share the same district-level profile: Waltham ranks 231 of 351 districts, at the 34th percentile with 2 stars. MacArthur enrolls 475 students with a student–teacher ratio of 11.4 and per-student spending of $21,642 (2020–21); Plympton enrolls 357 students with a ratio of 10.1 and spending of $23,136.
At the school level, MacArthur is the stronger overall performer. In 2025–26 it ranked 372 of 899 schools, at the 59th percentile with 3 stars, while Plympton ranked 557 of 899, at the 38th percentile with 2 stars. MacArthur's All-Grades ELA proficiency of 51.84% beats the district (38.13%) and state (40.03%), and its 5th-grade ELA result of 56.52% is the highest in the ZIP. Plympton's standout is 4th-grade math at 56.36%, above the district's 46.35% and the state's 43.20%. Overall math is nearly tied (43.75% vs. 43.29%), but grade patterns differ: Plympton leads in grades 3 and 4 math, while MacArthur leads 5th-grade math by 15.49 points. Science is a shared weakness, with both schools below 30% and below district and state averages.
Both schools are improving in the rankings. MacArthur rose from the 50th to the 59th percentile and from 2 to 3 stars; Plympton moved from the 26th to the 38th percentile and from 1 to 2 stars, a larger percentile gain but still 21 points behind MacArthur. Recently, MacArthur gained in ELA but slipped in math and science, while Plympton gained substantially in math, declined in ELA, and held roughly flat in science. Note that free/reduced-lunch data is blank for both schools and is not treated as zero, and spending figures are from 2020–21 while scores and ratios are more current.
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