Massachusetts school board elections, 2016

← 2015

2016 school board elections Election details and procedures List of elections Poll opening and closing times By geographic region Northeast Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island Vermont Midwest Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin South Alabama Arkansas Delaware Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia West Arizona California Colorado Idaho Montana Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming Pacific Alaska Hawaii Past elections 2015 2014 2013 Learn more about Massachusetts Federal government Presidential election Congressional delegation Federal courts State government State executives Massachusetts State Legislature Ballot measures State courts Local government Cities in Massachusetts Local ballot measures Recall efforts Public education Charter schools Higher education School choice See also External links Footnotes

2017 →

Elections

No Massachusetts school districts held general elections in 2016. School board elections in Massachusetts are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in odd-numbered years.

The 12 states without school board elections among the largest districts by enrollment in 2016 were Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

A total of nine Massachusetts school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections for 51 seats on November 3, 2015.

See also: Massachusetts school board elections, 2015

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Massachusetts

---

The sections below do not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

---

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York), Massachusetts had the highest share of students who scored at or above proficient in reading.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Massachusetts	58%	55%	47%	48%
Connecticut	45%	37%	43%	45%
New Hampshire	59%	47%	45%	44%
New York	40%	32%	37%	35%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Massachusetts and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Massachusetts schools reported a graduation rate of 85 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, second-lowest among its neighboring states

In Massachusetts, more students took the SAT than the ACT in 2013, earning an average SAT score of 1553.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Massachusetts	85%	Second	24.1	22%	1553	83%
Connecticut	85.5%	Second	24	27%	1532	85%
New Hampshire	87.3%	First	23.8	19%	1567	70%
New York	76.8%	Fourth	23.4	26%	1463	76%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores," accessed May 28, 2015 The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Massachusetts was lower than the national average at 2.7 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Massachusetts
	Massachusetts	U.S.
Total population:	6,784,240	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	7,800	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	79.6%	73.6%
Black/African American:	7.1%	12.6%
Asian:	6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.2%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.9%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	10.6%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	89.8%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	40.5%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$68,563	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13.1%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Massachusetts. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Massachusetts

Massachusetts voted for the Democratic candidate in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Massachusetts coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Massachusetts
• United States congressional delegations from Massachusetts
• Public policy in Massachusetts
• Endorsers in Massachusetts
• Massachusetts fact checks
• More...

See also

Massachusetts	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Massachusetts List of school districts in Massachusetts	School board elections, 2016 Massachusetts school board elections, 2015 Massachusetts school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey