According to the new US News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, Wellesley High School this year is ranked #26 out of over 300 public high schools in the state of Massachusetts, up two slots from 2020. In 2019, WHS took the #19 spot.
The 1,500+ grades 9 – 12 school has a graduation rate of 99%.
The top-ranked high school in the state this year was once again Boston Latin School, which came in #36 in the national rankings.
How some nearby high schools fared:
- Dover-Sherborn, #8
- Weston, #9
- Hopkinton, #10
- Medfield, #14
- Needham, #16
- Wayland, #18
- Newton South, #34
- Newton North, #37
- Natick, #66
- Framingham, #122
- Keefe Tech (in Framingham), #302
National ranking
Wellesley ranked #695 nationally this year, up from #825 in 2020. US News & World Report sorts schools based on their performance on state-required tests, graduation rates, and how well schools prepare students for college.
Three Massachusetts school this year cracked the national top-100 list—Boston Latin School (#36); Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (#40); and Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough (#93).
As for the #1 school in the country in 2021? Same as last year—Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.
Read about US News & World Report’s methedologies.
Among factors taken into consideration when ranking schools:
- student-to-teacher ratio: (13:1)
- math proficiency: 89% (down from 97% last year)
- reading proficiency: 85% (Wellesley has been at either 100% or 99% in previous years)
- percentage that participate in AP exams: 70% (up from 58% last year)
- graduation rate: (99%)
Click here to see Wellesley’s High School’s profile and for the full list of 365 Massachusetts secondary schools.
As always, there are true believers in US News and World Report’s ranking system, while others slam the company’s methodology. Before we even knew the rankings were made public, readers started sending in comments. Some expressed disappointment in Wellesley’s drop from the heady days of 2014, when WHS was ranked at #4 in the state. Some credited/blamed the report for everything from impacting real estate values to having an effect on school enrollment numbers.
One Swellesley reader called US News & World Report’s methodology deeply flawed. “The difference between an “A” and an “F” quality school in the USNWR rubric is almost entirely dependent on a school’s journey along the narrow track prescribed by The College Board, which owns the AP test ecosystem. Much of the WHS curriculum is better (not worse) for its lack of slavish adhesion to this one kind of quality, one kind of test, one kind of curriculum,” he said.
Supt. David Lussier in an email offered the following perspective: “I believe it’s important to understand how any ranking system is structured before deciding what value to place on its results. In this case, for example, the U.S. News & World Report places a heavy emphasis on the number of Advanced Placement exams that students take. And while WHS offers an AP program in multiple areas, we have made the deliberate choice to put a high level of rigor into a broader array of courses that we believe are equally effective in preparing students for college and careers.
“I think it’s also important to note what’s not measured in these rankings. Wellesley consistently has the highest (or near the highest) participation in athletics of any high school in the state. Our performing arts and visual arts programs are absolutely incredible and regularly receive top honors. These are essential experiences for students that are as important as our academic offerings and yet have no bearing on these rankings.
“I wish there were a better ranking system that was more calibrated to the things we value in a well-rounded, rigorous high school experience. In the absence of that system, we feel affirmed in our approach by the feedback we regularly receive from our graduates, who consistently tell us how prepared they have felt for college and how much they valued their time at WHS.”
WHS Principal Jamie Chisum added “…there are so many classes at WHS that are not valued by these rankings that are valued by our students and families. We offer a wide variety of programs because we want every student to be able to find at least one corner of the building that feels like home to them. For some of our kids that’s a cadre of classes that includes honors and AP’s and we’re proud of those classes and how well our students who choose them do in those classes. For others it could be song writing, TV/Video, child lab, a special education program, Evolutions, or woodworking. I’ve always worried that if we chase rankings, we could lose track of what our amazing kids in front of us actually need. Our rankings may improve, but if they do it will be a byproduct of our trying to best serve the overall educational needs of our kids and families.”
More: US News & World Report 2021 high school rankings: where Natick fits in
Take the Wellesley Public Schools Parents Coalition survey:
Leaving aside areas that US News does not cover in their rankings (as Dr. Lussier and Jamie Chisum have noted, that are very important to the quality of a high school), such as arts and athletics, the proficiency performance of students at WHS has slipped. A decrease as noted in this article from 97% to 89% in math proficiency is notable as is a decrease in reading proficiency from 100% to 85%. These are not favorable movements. Additionally, if AP participation rose from 58% to 70% and WHS ranking stayed mainly the same, then I’m wondering how we fared on performance of AP tests? Schools receive 3x the weight for passing grades on AP exams. The methodology behind these rankings is somewhat opaque – but the proficiency scores are apples to apples in year over year comparison, as far as I can tell having attempted to go down this rabbit hole…
The comments from the Superintendent and the Principal are almost as disappointing as these rankings are. They suggest that peripheral school offerings to produce a more “well-rounded” (a highly subjective definition) individual justify a compromise in standard parameters of academic excellence. They also indicate that these rankings will not change and, in fact, may continue to worsen.
Whether our school leaders like it or not, standard assessment tools of academic excellence matter in the real world. They matter a lot. We are not preparing our students to compete within that reality. Further, this state of affairs is compounded by an increasingly intrusive political indoctrination of our kids and with the displacement of merit as the chief criterion for the hiring of teachers and other school staff.
Given the budget and resources available to our schools, particularly when compared to those available to the schools placed ahead of ours, these rankings are simply unacceptable. Not to mention that the School Board keeps asking for additional funds virtually every year and we keep approving them.
Essentially all neighbors with whom I’ve discussed this feel as disturbed as I do. Indeed, we all do hope that the town’s administration reacts to this in the short and long terms. Otherwise, we can start to say goodbye to the Wellesley we once knew.
Maxwell – you are 100 percent correct and let’s encourage the administration to release preliminary enrollment numbers for next school year as soon as possible. This is the greatest vote of confidence or no confidence indicator there is.
Please don’t disregard many of the areas Dr Chisholm mentions that are not considered in the rankings. Anyone who has attended WHS performing arts productions will recognized the intensity, rigor, and sheer professionalism of these classes and programs. And, of course, they prepare students for the real world—talk about accountability! Mainstream academics are incredibly important, but none of these outstanding and demanding programs were considered.in the rankings. And current research continues to support the importance of more than just paper-pencil tests. Educating kids is much more complicated.
I applaud Wellesley for not falling into the AP race. They are often constrained, regimented courses, and I’d challenge anyone to debate the rigor of many of the honors English and history courses at WHS. My kids have graduated with incredible writing skills.. Not sure AP courses would match the depth and intensity of those courses.
I happen to disagree with this sentiment, as further expanded in my comments below. Just to follow up on your own points, there is a lot more than writing skills to education. As to the history courses, they have been distinctly biased to the left as of late, shaming students with divergent opinions, thus far from “rigorous” in their open debate. Still, even those who agree with you should have a limit of tolerance as to how low our rankings could go. I hope that being in the 20’s (as we have been for years), or even in the teens for that matter, in the state alone, is not it. Frankly, I find it an embarrassment not to be at least in the single digits (again, in the state only) with the resources that we have. An alternative approach to education does not necessarily have to come at the expense of what the world demands of it. Not to mention of what the people of Wellesley expect.