The Boston Globe’s “G” section for 09.05.09 published a chart of schools that deliver the best bang for the buck. Namely, schools that produce solid results and have afforbable homes.

They identified several criteria: MCAS scores for 4th & 10th grades, teacher-pupil ratios, diversity, and Avg assessed home values for single family homes.  The criteria were each awarded a score from 1 – 4 with exception of diversity which was either 1 (diverse) or 0 (not diverse). Milton is clearly diverse, however, in the other areas the Globe only awarded Milton a single point (MCAS grade 4 scores, avg home price and teacher: student ratio). Only on MCAS scores for grade 10 did Milton score a 3. Many of the schools in the top ten also had high average home prices but scored 3 and 4 in all other criteria. Milton was in the bottom quartile.

We would advise taking this with a grain of salt. You can find the story and the full chart here.