Cambridge and Lexington schools secured the top rankings among Massachusetts public elementary and middle schools in the latest U.S. News & World Report evaluation for the 2026-27 academic year. Among more than 700 rated public elementary schools statewide, Cambridge’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School ranked first, while Jonas Clarke Middle School in Lexington topped a list of 370 middle schools.

The national assessment evaluated over 46,000 public elementary schools and 24,000 middle schools across the United States, focusing on state-level and district-level ratings rather than producing an overall national ranking. Schools serving grades K-8 were divided between the elementary and middle school categories.

According to U.S. News, the rankings aim to reflect schools’ effectiveness in educating students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and preparing them with core competencies outlined in state curricula for success in high school. The publication described its lists as a resource for families seeking the best local schools.

In addition to the Martin Luther King Jr. School, Massachusetts elementary schools placing in the top five included Chilmark Elementary School in the Up-Island Regional School District (No. 2), John D. Hardy Elementary in Wellesley (No. 3), Woodland Elementary in Weston (No. 4), and Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School in Cambridge (No. 5). Among middle and K-8 schools, Brookline’s Amos A. Lawrence, William H. Lincoln, and John Pierce schools ranked second through fourth, respectively, followed by Belmont Middle School at fifth place.

The rankings were based primarily on standardized state test results in math and reading/language arts. Fifty percent of each school’s score came directly from these test scores, while the remaining half adjusted results to account for socioeconomic factors within the student population. To resolve ties in overall scores, student-teacher ratios were used as a tiebreaker.

These school rankings follow the release of a related report on public high schools by U.S. News earlier this year. The current analysis arrives amid ongoing challenges faced by Massachusetts schools in regaining pre-pandemic performance levels on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams.

Recent MCAS data revealed stagnant math scores and slight declines in English/language arts among students in grades 3 through 8 compared to the previous year. Although the top-ranked elementary and middle schools demonstrated relatively strong performance, their scores have not entirely returned to 2019 levels, the last year before the pandemic disrupted education. For example, students at the Martin Luther King Jr. School showed some improvement in math compared to 2019 but saw declines in English/language arts, while Jonas Clarke Middle School’s scores are approaching, but have not yet fully matched, those earlier benchmarks.

U.S. News also provided separate rankings for charter schools at the elementary and middle school levels in Massachusetts. Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School led the charter elementary rankings, followed by Pioneer Charter School of Science in Everett and Brooke Charter School in Mattapan. In the charter middle school category, Brooke Charter School took the top position, with Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School and Mystic Valley Regional Charter School placing second and third, respectively.