Summary:
ZIP code 02494 is home to one public high school: Needham High, which serves grades 9–12 and enrolls 1,633 students as part of the Needham district. Because there is only one high school in this area, the most useful comparisons are Needham High against its district, the state of Massachusetts, and its own prior-year results.
Needham High is one of the top-ranked high schools in the state. In 2025–2026, it placed 11th out of 353 schools — the 97th percentile — with 5 stars, its best showing in the reported period and an improvement from 21st out of 349 in 2024–2025. It has held 5 stars in all three reported years: 2023–2024, 2024–2025, and 2025–2026. Its district ranked 20th out of 351 districts, in the 94th percentile, also with 5 stars. MCAS Next Generation proficiency in 2025–2026 was far above the state: 10th-grade ELA 87.89% vs. 45.48%, math 90.78% vs. 43.73%, science 72.10% vs. 40.50%, and Biology end-of-course 74.03% vs. 37.68%. Math was the strongest subject and improved the most year over year (84.66% to 90.78%); ELA rose from 86.45% to 87.89%, while science slipped slightly from 72.70% to 72.10%. The two Biology results cover different grade groupings, so they are not a direct year-over-year comparison.
Outcomes are strong: a 99.0% graduation rate in 2024–2025, above the district's 97.9%, and a 0.5% dropout rate, matching the district exactly. The student-teacher ratio is 11.8, and per-student spending was $18,921 in 2020–2021, which is older data best viewed as historical context. The free/reduced-lunch percentage is not reported in the available data, so socioeconomic context cannot be assessed. School proficiency rates sit only slightly above district averages, suggesting the high school's results align closely with the district overall.
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