Acton-Boxborough Regional High School has been ranked the 10th best high school out of 351 high schools in Massachusetts. The ranking was part of the 2024 annual report of the best high schools, published by U.S. News & World Report.
Nationally, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School received a ranking of 319 out of 17,660 high schools that met ranking criteria.
The High School’s STEM program was ranked the top 20th in the nation out of 500 ranked schools.
The Boston Globe published a full list of rankings on Tuesday, April 23.
Data was culled from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, the College Board, the International Baccalaureate Organization, and the public websites of state education agencies for the 2021-22 school year.
Critics of the U.S. News ranking system have pointed out that the multi-step ranking process used by U.S. News focuses almost exclusively on schools’ proficiency rates achieved on state assessments in math, science and reading and on scores on Advanced Placement and similar tests that signal college readiness.
Nat Malkus, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Education Policy at the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute cautioned that “while assessment indicators do set a high bar for academic excellence” they ignore other indicators of school quality such as student growth. The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) has utilized community survey data to identify a more comprehensive set of indicators with which to measure school success including professional development for school staff and the degree to which school culture supports student engagement.
Diane Baum has been an Acton resident since 1999. She served on the Acton-Boxborough School Committee from 2015 to 2021.