Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Malden, Massachusetts - 7 schools
An equity score of 32/100 ranks Malden #233 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $18,522 per pupil, Malden ranks #318 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
6,370
Total Enrollment
7
Schools
$18,522
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Malden operates 7 public schools serving 6,370 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 1 high, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Middlesex County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,522 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 32.4% local, 55.4% state, and 12.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 32/100, ranked #233 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 7 schools offering Advanced Placement (13 AP courses district-wide), a 222.8:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 36.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 28.9% Hispanic or Latino, 24.6% White, 21.2% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Linden, with a diversity index of 77.1/100.
Its largest campus is Malden High, enrolling 1,890 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Malden Early Learning Center, at 238 students, a 8x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Malden High accounts for 29.7% of all Malden student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Malden-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Malden school enrollment varies 7.9× across entities
Malden school enrollment ranges from 238 students (lowest) to 1,890 students (highest), a spread of 1,652 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Malden student-counselor ratio is 223:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Malden chronic absenteeism rate is 36.2% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.