Wayland High Ranks Near Top In Boston Magazine Survey

is one of the top high schools in the Boston area, according to a survey released this month in Boston magazine.

WHS was ranked No. 6 among the 230 public and charter high schools considered in the survey. Only Weston High School, which achieved the No. 1 spot, ranked higher than Wayland among immediately bordering towns.

WHS Principal Pat Tutwiler said in an email to Patch that the ranking was a "wonderful honor" for which WHS was "happy to be recognized." He went on to express his appreciation of the teachers, staff and parents who impact students in the years before they reach the high school.

"To be clear, this is a distinction to be shared by all of the schools and the parent community in the district," he said. "Students arrive to Wayland High School with solid skills, pretty expansive knowledge and committed to their studies. We credit our colleagues in the elementary schools and the middle school for teaching the skills and inspiring the commitment.

"With this foundation, we can really do some wonderful things. Add the extraordinary talents and dedication of the WHS faculty and a supportive parent community and you have the perfect recipe for something special." 

The rankings were based on a variety of data including test scores, number of AP classes offered, graduation rates, percent of students who continue to college, as well as the amount of sports teams and clubs available.

George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College, served as the statistician for the survey. Recck calculated the mean scores for each category and ranked the districts based on a weighted average of each school data point’s difference from the mean, according to a press release.

The magazine looked at per pupil spending and teacher to student ratio, but "the importance placed on these figures was dialed back slightly as recent studies show that they’re not educational silver bullets," the press release reads.

In fact, among the top five schools in terms of per pupil spending -- Minuteman High School at $28,962; Cambridge Rindge & Latin School at $25,737; Blue Hills Regional Technical School at $20,948; Norfolk County Agricultural High School at $20,380; and Waltham High School at $18,960 -- only Cambridge Rindge & Latin School cracked the top 50 in overall rankings.

For comparison, Wayland at No. 6 spends $15,219 per pupil.

The study shows no "significant correlation between a school’s level of spending and its final ranking," according to the report.

In addition to Weston High at No. 1, some nearby high schools that made the Top 50 include Concord-Carlisle High School at No. 4, Wellesley High School at No. 5, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School at No. 16 and Natick High School at No. 37.

The complete listing is available on the Boston magazine website.