Norton Public Schools Rank 101 on Best Schools in Boston List

Norton Public Schools came in at No. 101 this week on an annual list that ranks the best school systems in greater Boston.

The rankings, compiled by Boston Magazine, ranked the 147 school systems located inside the Route 495 belt. Dover came in at No. 1 on the list, followed by Sherborn at No. 2. Nearby, Mansfield ranked 78, Easton ranked 83, Foxborough ranked 64 and Taunton ranked 130.

The list was compiled using statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Education, including including student-to-teacher ratio, average class size, expenditures per pupil, rate of college matriculation, and results on tests such as the SAT and the MCAS.

Below is how Boston Magazine described its methodology:

We gathered the most recent available data on area schools from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (doe.mass.edu). We also consulted town and school websites if necessary. Our rankings were then computed by statistician George Recck, who is the director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College. Recck calculated the mean scores for each category, and then ranked the towns based on a weighted average of each school data point’s difference from the mean. Only schools whose districts lie all or partially within the Greater Boston I-495 boundary were included. To calculate rankings for towns within regional school districts, we used data for regional high or middle schools where applicable.

Norton's average class size is 20.6 and graduation rate is 85.1 percent. The per-pupil expenditure in Norton is $11,762.

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