NCES CCD 2024-25 7 schools MA

Best-Resourced Schools in Chelmsford, MA

Compiled from official source data by PlainSchools. · Updated August 2026

7 public K-12 schools in Chelmsford from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

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Schools

3,268

Students

39.3/100

Avg Resource Index

12.6:1

Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Chelmsford has more public-school enrollment than 33% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Chelmsford sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

5 of Chelmsford's 7 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 0 middle and 0 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales

Chelmsford lists only 7 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 70 to 808 students, a 12-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.

City enrollment: Top 67%
School count: Top 65%
Resource Index average: 43rd percentile
Teacher staffing: 83rd percentile

Mccarthy Middle School accounts for 24.7% of all Chelmsford public-school enrollment

That concentration means Chelmsford-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data Accessed 2026-08-26

Chelmsford school enrollment varies 12× across entities

Chelmsford school enrollment ranges from 70 students (lowest) to 808 students (highest), a spread of 738 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data Accessed 2026-08-26

Chelmsford student-teacher ratio is 12.6:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe Accessed 2026-08-26

#	School	Score	Enrollment	Level	District
1.	South Row	51	464	elementary	Chelmsford
2.	Mccarthy Middle School	48	808	elementary	Chelmsford
3.	Col Moses Parker School	40	778	elementary	Chelmsford
4.	Center Elementary School	38	480	elementary	Chelmsford
5.	Dr. Janice Adie Day School	36	70	Combined	Lowell
6.	Byam School	32	510	elementary	Chelmsford
7.	Community Education Center	30	158	Combined	Chelmsford

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Chelmsford

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

What do families ask about schools in Chelmsford?

Which Chelmsford school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

South Row has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Chelmsford schools in this federal-data comparison at 51/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Chelmsford, MA? ▼

Chelmsford has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,268 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.6:1.

Other Cities in Massachusetts

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Massachusetts →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.