Swampscott Schools 66th in Boston Magazine Rankings

For the first time in three years Swampscott did not crack the top 50 rankings in the Boston Magazine school rankings. 

Swampscott schools ranked 66th among the 147 best schools in Greater Boston in 2013.

The magazine's rankings are eagerly anticipated, and not just by those who work for schools. To read the entire article, go to their website.

We will have comments on the local ranking from the Swampscott superintendent after he gets a chance to read through the newly released information and after the dust settles on the opening of school Wednesday.

The magazine drew on recent data by consulting the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and, in some cases, culled information from town and school district websites, according to the magazine.

The ranking places Swampscott just below Foxborough and Milton and just ahead of Newburyport and Ashland.

Rankings closer to home: Marblehead 40th, Salem 133rd, Peabody 123rd  and Lynn 144th.

The top ranked school district was Dover and the lowest ranked district was Lawrence.

The magazine arrived at its rankings through the work of a team of researchers and a statistician — George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson.

The rankings took into account variables including test scores, per pupil spending, student-to-teacher ratios, number of Adavance Placement classes, graduation rate, and percent of students who go on to college.

Janelle Nanos, senior editor of Boston magazine, said "five statistical categories were added for 2013 and slight changes were made also made to the categories, which could also contribute to the change in rankings."

Swampscott ranked 40th the last time the magazine ranked more than just high schools. In 2011, the magazine took into account data from at least middle and high schools. We are trying to confirm whether the 2011 rankings considered elementary educational data.

The magazine calculated just best Boston area high schools in 2012. Swampscott finished 49th out of 222 high schools.

Nanos said that in 2013, "for the first time in several years, Boston magazine incorporated educational data from local elementary and middle schools in the rankings."