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Somerville, Massachusetts - 11 schools
An equity score of 52/100 ranks Somerville #53 of 362 districts in Massachusetts (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $27,320 per pupil, Somerville ranks #52 of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending (Massachusetts districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
4,884
Total Enrollment
11
Schools
$27,320
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Somerville operates 11 public schools serving 4,884 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Massachusetts. The school portfolio breaks down into 7 combined, 2 high, 1 elementary, 1 middle schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. 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 $27,320 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 396 Massachusetts districts by per-pupil spending. See how Massachusetts compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 59.2% local, 33.2% state, and 7.6% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 52/100, ranked #53 of 362 in Massachusetts against a state average of 38, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 11 schools offering Advanced Placement (18 AP courses district-wide), a 140.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 29.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 39.7% White, 36.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Capuano Early Childhood Center, with a diversity index of 73.7/100.
Its largest campus is Somerville High, enrolling 1,394 students (28% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Next Wave Junior High, at 16 students, a 87x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Somerville High accounts for 28.2% of all Somerville student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Somerville-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.
Somerville school enrollment varies 87× across entities
Somerville school enrollment ranges from 16 students (lowest) to 1,394 students (highest), a spread of 1,378 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Somerville student-counselor ratio is 141:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 Values this far below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Somerville chronic absenteeism rate is 29.1% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Somerville is typically wider than the Somerville-aggregate figure suggests.