New Study Finds Mansfield School District as Fourth Best for Your Buck in Massachusetts

With all the testing and studies that are done to find the best school districts in Massachusetts, it can be easy for parents to wonder how their local schools stack up against other schools in the area.

Taking cost-of-living factors into consideration, Nerd Wallet recently looked at which towns are getting the most bang for their buck when it comes to education.

The study used the following factors in their methodology to figure out the school districts with the best value:

• Living Cost - 30% of the total score. The living cost was calculated by averaging the district index score for median home value and selected monthly homeowner costs for the school district.
• Standardized Testing Score - 30% of the total score. Uses 10th grade MCAS results and the SAT scores.
• College Readiness - 30% of the total score. This is made up of the high school graduation rate and the percent of students going on to colleges and universities, both two- and four-year institutions.
• Student-to-Teacher Ratio - 10% of the score.

Taking all this into consideration, the study showed that Mansfield students get the fourth best value when it comes to public education in Massachusetts with a score of 77.96.

According to the website, “Mansfield provides a healthy mix of brains and brawn. The school district combines a high graduation rate of 94.4% with recognized dominance in several sports, most notably its high school football team, which won Division II state championships in 2004, 2010 and 2013. Home values were the most affordable of our top 10, making Mansfield a true contender for getting the most education value for the money.”

The Westford School District came in at number one with a score of 82.12.

Nearby Sharon came in at number 17, while Foxborough ranked 65th, and Easton was 50th.

Click here to see the full rankings on Nerd Wallet.