In its just delivered September issue (not yet available online), Boston Magazine named Lowell High School one of the 50 best public high schools in Massachusetts – number 25, to be exact.  Recognizing the reality of tight budgets, the magazine’s rankings are based not on “showy test scores” but on schools that “excel at stretching tax dollars.”  With 3,573 students, Lowell’s enrollment dwarfed the other 49 schools with only two (Boston Latin with 2,427 students and Framingham High with 2,125) having more than 2,000 students.  Lowell’s per pupil expenditure of $12,005 was right in the middle with Cambridge Rindge and Latin spending the most per pupil ($24,467) and Westford Academy spending the least ($9,298).  While Lowell’s student to teacher ratio of 12 to 1 seemed about average, it’s ratio of students to “non-teacher staff” – 123 to 1 – was very high compared to the other schools.  In other words, at Lowell High, there’s one administrator or other non-teacher for every 123 students.  How does that compare to the five schools that scored highest in this ranking of Massachusetts high schools that made the most efficient use of the funds available to them?  Concord-Carlisle had one “non teacher” for every 29 students, #2 Algonquin Regional had one “non teacher” for every 141 students; #3 Dover-Sherborn had one for every 38 students; #4 Bedford High had one for every 22 students; and #5 Weston High had one “non teacher” for every 20 students. 

So congratulations to Lowell High School for being ranked 25th best in the state at “stretching tax dollars” by Boston Magazine.