Arlington is one of only 13 school districts in Massachusetts where elementary and middle school students’ 2025 MCAS scores matched or exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Four Arlington schools — Bishop, Dallin, Peirce and Ottoson — ranked in the top 10 percent statewide. Dallin Elementary was named a Massachusetts School of Recognition by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for its strong academic growth and achievement.
“We have been really explicit and purposeful about our plan for improving academic outcomes for all of our students,” said Liz Homan, superintendent of Arlington Public Schools.
Across the state, MCAS proficiency rates have largely plateaued since 2019, according to state data. Across Massachusetts in 2025, 42 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, and 41 percent did so in math.
Arlington continues to outperform those averages. This year, 71 percent of Arlington students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, and 69 percent did so in math — roughly in line with the district’s 2019 performance.
At the high school level, Arlington’s scores have remained steady as well. In grade 10, 80 percent to 81 percent of students have met or exceeded expectations in English language arts each year from 2019 to 2025. Math proficiency hit 81 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point from 2019.
Arlington was one of six Greater Boston districts or schools to match or exceed pre-pandemic levels, along with Wakefield, Cohasset, Cambridge’s Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School, Everett’s Pioneer Charter School of Science, and Boston’s Excel Academy.
Arlington’s progress aligns with its 2024 to 2030 strategic plan, which outlines priorities for student learning, staff development and community engagement.
The plan was developed with community input and supported by a 2023 Proposition 2½ override, a voter-approved increase in property tax revenue that provides additional funds for schools, municipal services and other priorities.
This ensures Arlington has equity and excellence for all students, valuing educators, improving school infrastructure and strengthening partnerships that support long-term success, Homan said.
APS identified four groups whose voices haven’t always been heard — English language learners, students with disabilities, low-income students and high-need students.
“For those groups we’ve tried to take a holistic approach to identify the challenge impacting achievement and remove the barriers to achievement that exist for those groups,” Homan said.
This means expanding access to advanced courses and extracurriculars or adding more instructional support and special education resources, she said. “What this year’s MCAS results show is that we are making good on that promise with the resources that taxpayers have allocated to the schools,” Homan said.
During the 2024-25 academic year, APS implemented a contract that included a 3.7 percent salary increase for teachers.
“We used those resources to deliver on the promises that were in the strategic plan, and those included improved pay for educators which enables us to hire more competitive teachers,” Homan said. “The single biggest indicator of performance for kids is the quality of the educator in front of them.”
Since 2020, Arlington Public Schools’ total full-time equivalent staffing — which includes teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators and specialists — has risen from 799 to 953, a 19 percent increase, according to state data. The district’s growth has been driven largely by the hiring of special educators and instructional experts to better meet diverse student needs, Homan said.
The number of teachers also grew from 439 in 2020 to 484 in 2025, though data for the current year is incomplete.
Prior to the 2024 pay increase, APS tightened its hiring processes and worked with more professionally licensed candidates, requiring multiple rounds of interviews and a demo lesson. Growth is driven largely by the hiring of specialized educators and instructional experts to better meet diverse student needs.
The district has improved classrooms with new furniture and updated technology to support learning.
“We’ve done a big curriculum rollout in literacy at the elementary level, and we’ve dedicated a lot of resources to training our teachers on that,” Homan said.
In 2024, Massachusetts voters elected to eliminate the MCAS exam as a standard graduation requirement for Massachusetts students. Though it’s no longer a graduation requirement, the MCAS test remains part of the district’s accountability system, measuring student progress, graduation rates and other metrics.
Arlington has replaced the MCAS graduation requirement with a coursework-based system, where students demonstrate competency through their performance in class rather than a standardized test. This approach evaluates students across assignments, projects and assessments throughout the year.
School Committee member Paul Schlichtman endorsed voting yes on the MCAS graduation ballot question. “We can remove an outdated testing requirement that blocks students from receiving a diploma they rightfully deserve, and your YES vote can correct that injustice,” Schlichtman, who was then the committee chair, wrote in a 2024 X post.
This story, published on Nov. 7, 2025, is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.