Published in the September 11, 2015 edition.
By BOB BURGESS
WAKEFIELD — According to Boston Magazine, the town’s school system isn’t too bad.
The publication ranks Wakefield 66th in its top 125 districts inside or bisected by Route 495, up from the 80th spot Wakefield was given two years ago.
In the 2015 back to school issue, a statistician crunched numbers provided by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with the rankings. School districts were rewarded, according the the magazine article, for having smaller class sizes, lower student-to-teacher ratios and higher rates of per-pupil spending, among other characteristics.
“In response to criticism of such rankings, we’ve also tried to deemphasize test results. We still take standardized test scores into account — but we reduced the weight of those scores within the overall rankings. We also changed the way we measure Advanced Placement scores. Previously, we considered only the percentage of Advanced Placement test takers who scored highly on the AP exam. This year, we also looked at the percentage of students in each school who took the exam in the first place,” the Boston Magazine writer states.
Wakefield had 3,439 enrolled when the statistics for the piece were compiled. The average class size was 18.6, and the student to teacher ratio was 13.5. According to Boston Magazine, Wakefield spent on average $12,418 per student and had a graduation rate of 92.8.
Of those graduates, according to the data, 85 percent are attending college.
The average score on the reading portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, according to the latest statistics from the state education department, was 528; the average score on the writing portion of the SAT was 527; the average score on the math SAT was 554.
There were 141 students participating in Advanced Placement courses. Over 72 percent scored a three or better on the AP exams.
As far as the MCAS tests go, 64 percent of third graders were proficient or better on the reading part of the exams; 77 percent of third graders scored proficient or better on the MCAS math test; 75 percent of fifth graders were proficient or better on the MCAS English exam; 64 percent of fifth graders were proficient or better on the MCAS math tests and 63 percent of fifth graders were proficient or better on the MCAS science tests.
At the Galvin Middle School, 85 percent of eight graders scored proficient or better on the MCAS English tests; 63 percent of eight graders were proficient or better on the MCAS math tests, and 50 of eighth graders were proficient or better on the MCAS science tests.
At Wakefield Memorial High, 95 percent of sophomores were proficient or better on the MCAS English tests; 88 percent were proficient or better on the 10th grade MCAS math test and 86 percent were proficient or better on the MCAS science test.
The Boston Magazine article states, “We ranked the 125 school districts that lie primarily inside I-495. We used the most recent data available at press time from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For each district, statistician George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College, created a weighted average value based on the best available data for the district’s individual schools — including high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. Recck then compared each district’s data values with the overall average for all districts and applied a percentage weight to the standardized value for each, to create an aggregate score. Finally, the districts were ranked based on that statistical score.”
Surrounding districts ranked higher than Wakefield included Lexington (third), Bedford (fifth), Winchester (15th), Stoneham (41st), Lynnfield (36th) and Burlington (39th).
Those ranked lower included Melrose (78th), Woburn (86th), Saugus (104) and Malden (115).
