Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Cambridge MA public schools

Hmm. I am scrolling back through these old threads and finding some gaps in information. This is too late for the original poster, but hopefully helpful and informative for anyone looking for this information in future.

Cambridge has a very diverse set of public elementary schools (project oriented, Mandarin, Spanish immersion, Portuguese immersion, Montessori, technology focused, neighborhood) Each school has its own particular focus and flavor so it is hard to generalize across all the elementary schools. Take a look at the CPSD web site and perhaps join this CPS mailing list for information specific to each school.

The elementary schools are generally well regarded and it is very competitive to get into certain schools, partially for geographic reasons. Schools are assigned by “controlled choice” - a fairly complex points + lottery system - most people seem to shake out into schools they are happy with. Also, Cambridge has a relatively fluid population due to the large number of people coming to/from Boston for work and a fairly high number of families moving out to the suburbs for more affordable housing. This means that transferring to your desired school is not that difficult as long as you are willing to waitlist.

The middle schools (Gr 6 - 8) do not generally have a good reputation and many people who can afford to do so do go private for these years. This is probably where other posters get the idea that Cambridge schools are not good. There is a long story behind the middle school problem, but essentially a not so successful transformation some years ago is being rethought.

The high school has an excellent reputation and most residents who go private for middle school return to CRLS for high school. There are also many people who live in highly rated school suburbs who want to move to Cambridge for high school.

Here is some information on enrollment numbers (copied from a recent post on the CPS mailing list):

• 2013-2014 - 395 8th graders —> 2014-15 499 9th graders => 104 new 9th graders
• 2012-13 - 357 8th graders —> 2013-14 => 451 9th graders.

So about a hundred 9th graders return to or move to Cambridge for high school.

Cambridge is a wealthy city [with low property taxes for owner-occupied residences] that spends more than average in Massachusetts per student (~$26,000 vs. ~$13,000). There is inevitable grumbling about how this money is spent, but the schools I have seen appear to be well-resourced and specialists are available and very visible within the schools. We certainly feel that we get our money’s worth.

The CPS student body is very diverse, ethnically, socioeconomically, academically and on other measures (crunchy granola tree huggers rub shoulders with everything Disney; no screen time families sit alongside hard core coders; parents may be academics, refugees, artists, entrepreneurs, professionals, authors, engineers, civic or not-for profit employees/volunteers, or something else entirely). The percentage of g/t students in public schools is about 7%; the frequency of 2e and special needs students also seems fairly high. Definitely not a typical distribution.



Addressing Bostonian and GF2's comments: many people who work in Cambridge cannot afford to live in Cambridge. Housing prices in Cambridge are sky high (average over $600/square foot, low stock of 3+ bed homes, most go over the asking price and even at these prices many require significant renovation). Hence a lot of families move out of the city once they outgrow their two bedroom condo or are squeezed out by rising rents. On our street there are a dozen Harvard professors with good-sized family homes, but most have lived here for 20+ years and their children have moved away. Younger Harvard/MIT faculty are thinner on the ground in Cambridge due to housing costs but are certainly well-represented among public school parents. I'd be curious to know if GF2's sample completely avoided Cambridge public schools while continuing to live in Cambridge or simply stepped out of the system for middle school.

A very small minority of our neighborhood friends (i.e. people we have known since taking our babies to the playground) have chosen private elementary schools over public schools and these choices are usually made for philosophical rather than quality reasons. i.e. they want their children to have a very specific type of educational experience which is not available in any public system, or they want to cocoon their children. Most of the "good school" suburbs are natural cocoons Despite that I do not know anyone who has willingly moved to the suburbs “because of schools”. Families tend to make the agonizing decision to move to the suburbs because of housing prices, and then select the suburbs with good school systems. When we were preparing to move we looked at a lot of suburbs. While many may have school systems that would work for above average to moderately gifted children we did not see anything that looked like a good fit for a EG or PG child. Adding to that, the suburban school culture can be competitive and unpleasant. A friend who worked in one of the reputedly best suburban school systems and whose HG children had been through the system advised that those schools were not welcoming to or a good fit for exceptional children.

Although Massachusetts does not have any state support for gifted education, Cambridge does provide support via the Office of Student Services (which also supports special education). There is a relatively new role the Academic Challenge and Enrichment (ACE) Manager (more information here - this site is hard to find if you don't know what you are looking for), and a parent community, CALA. Support for gifted students is evolving, but currently happens on a case by case basis and is parent driven. This is definitely not a standardized system-driven process of elementary level identification and enrichment: from talking with other parents it varies from school to school and according to parent advocacy. There is a move to change this, but this is still in the early stages of formulation and will take time. In middle school there is a pathway for accelerated math, and in high school there are AP classes and the opportunity to co-enroll in Harvard Extension School courses. See CRLS Enrichment.

Our experience has been that the OSS is positive and supportive but does not have many pre-existing policies and frameworks for acceleration in elementary school. So advocating is necessary and it is helpful to be actively engaged with the process. One district level guideline is that children can be considered for subject acceleration if they are 2+ grades ahead of classmates. If you are in this situation it is helpful to engage with the ACE manager. Unfortunately families tend to be fairly closeted and guarded about gifted education (in my experience in the Greater Boston area), so sharing information is not always easy. We are working to change this in Cambridge. My impression from other parents and the ACE manager is that a number of children are subject-accelerated but few are grade accelerated. Our family has had a very positive experience thus far.

With the caveat that I do not have firsthand experience of Somerville schools, unfortunately Somerville schools do not have the same resources and reputation as Cambridge. We do know many people who moved away from Somerville for schools, or who put their children in private/Catholic school. I would be surprised if Somerville had much g/t support. It might be worth looking at Arlington since it has reputedly good schools, is budget friendly relative to Cambridge/Somerville, and has a better reputation for diversity and less of a tiger parent reputation than Lexington or Winchester. Lots of youngish professionals and academics move to Arlington.

Other than Cambridge, if we had a large budget, commitment to public school and no commuting constraints I would investigate Brookline. If I were homeschooling I might choose a conveniently located town with relatively low property taxes. I am really happy that we are in Cambridge.

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Editing to add:

Here's the Schools at a Glance brochure, which gives a good flavor of the schools.

Also, after my post above, I saw some parents from the High School + the ACE manager. They told me that the high school runs on a block schedule (like college) and seniors and freshmen often attend the same classes. College prep, Honors and (~20) AP classes are offered, and a student who has exhausted the high school offerings can attend Harvard Extension School. Parents say that there is essentially no ceiling. For example, the high school has a four math courses requirement so many advanced students end up fulfilling this requirement by taking classes at Harvard Extension School. The high school is also adding computer science classes that count toward the math requirement. One parent I spoke to had come to Harvard for a year long fellowship and brought their 14 year old gifted child along, leaving their spouse and older child in their home country. They were so impressed with the high school that they decided to stay in Cambridge for their child to complete high school here, with the other parent flying back and forth every other month. (This is a family that would have access to the very best schools in their home country.) So that's a vote of confidence, and reassures me that my children won't run out of interesting and challenging classes while in high school.