Best Public Schools in Zip Code 02452

ZIP code 02452 covers five schools in Waltham, Massachusetts, all within the Waltham district: two elementary schools (Northeast Elementary School, PK–5, and Dual Language School, K–5), one middle school (John F Kennedy Middle, 6–8), and two high schools (Waltham Senior High and Waltham Valor High School, both 9–12). Together they enroll about 3,224 students, but that number is heavily concentrated at the high school level: Waltham Senior High alone accounts for roughly 55.6% of it, while Waltham Valor High has only 49 students.

John F Kennedy Middle is the academic outlier in this area. It is the only 4-star school here, ranked 133 of 478 (72nd percentile) in 2025–2026 after improving from 3 stars in 2023–2024, and it beats both district and state averages in ELA, math, and science. Its 8th grade math score of 58.17 is the highest reported figure in the dataset, well above the district's 48.59 and the state's 41.67. For comparison, Northeast Elementary and Dual Language sit below both district and state in ELA and math; Northeast is nonetheless improving, rising from the 27th to the 34th percentile and from 1 star to 2, while Dual Language shows a science bright spot but a math score of 29.52, more than 10 points below district and state. Waltham Senior High is also trending up — 27th, then 30th, then 37th percentile — and beats district averages in every reported test, but trails the state in all of them, with the biggest gaps in science and physics.

Waltham Valor High stands apart for a different reason: a 30.0% graduation rate and 35.0% dropout rate, far from the district's 74.5% and 16.8%, though its very small size makes those rates volatile. One notable pattern is that spending does not track with results — Northeast Elementary and JFK Middle report nearly identical 2020–2021 per-student spending ($23,912 vs $23,907) despite very different outcomes. Families should also know that free/reduced lunch data is not reported for any of these schools, and spending figures are historical, so the picture is incomplete.