Two Cambridge public schools made the top 10 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Massachusetts elementary schools, with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School taking the top spot and the Maria L. Baldwin School ranking seventh.

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A North Cambridge independent pre-K-6 charter school, the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School, was ranked fifth. Other Cambridge public elementary schools in the top 100 were Tobin Montessori School (23), and Morse Elementary School (34). The Amigos School was placed at 101. More than 700 elementary schools across Massachusetts were ranked.

The outcomes are based primarily on state testing data from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). The formula used by U.S. News weighted the scores and student body socioeconomic characteristics.

To break ties in the comprehensive data, the ranking favored the school with the lower student-to-teacher ratio. (The MLK school has a 10.2-to-1 ratio and the Baldwin school has an 11-to-1 ratio.)

“This type of recognition only happens when there is enormous amount of hard work, dedication, and talent going on within a school community,” Superintendent David Murphy said at last week’s School Committee meeting.

Both the MLK School and the Baldwin School were among the top scoring schools in the district in newly released MCAS data from last school year.

The Baldwin school had the highest achievement data for third- to eighth-graders in English Language Arts, where 79% of students met or exceeded grade-level expectations, and in Math, where 83% of students met or exceeded expectations.

The MLK school had the fourth-highest score of all district schools in that category in ELA, and the fifth-highest in Math, both at 67%.

Praise from parents, but also concerns

Annie Holland, parent to a third-grader at Baldwin and co-president of Friends of Baldwin, a nonprofit that supports the school, called Baldwin an “amazing place.” The ranking is “a great reflection of such a well-run school,” Holland said.

Other parents echoed pride in the communities at the Baldwin and MLK schools.

“I am so proud to be a Baldwin parent,” said Kerry O’Connor, treasurer of Friends of Baldwin.

Jia-Jing Lee, an MLK parent, said she was “glad to see [the MLK] school among those recognized.”

While the district should “celebrate the good work” represented by the ranking, Murphy said at the School Committee meeting, the list is not the only standard by which to measure Cambridge schools.

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Parents contacted by Cambridge Day also seemed hesitant to place too much importance on state test data, a sentiment that was partially behind the state decision to remove MCAS as a graduation requirement in 2024.

Lee, for example, said that it’s important to look into the factors behind the scores, like disparities in access to resources.

“Test scores do matter,” Lee said. “But at the same time, we need to understand what they actually measure, what they don’t measure, and how much they can really tell us about a school’s overall quality of education.”

O’Connor spoke to the importance of creative and physical education, subjects that are not reflected in test scores. “Test scores are only one benchmark of a healthy childhood,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor advocated against Baldwin classroom shuffling last May, which resulted in changes to the school’s gym and moved a longtime art classroom to the building’s basement.

Sebastian Arnold, an MLK parent, said the growth of the ranked schools is a “testament to what can be done in Cambridge.”

“The best part of the news for me isn’t where MLK and Baldwin are today, but how far they traveled to get there,” Arnold said.

The MLK school has improved in its state ranking over the course of the last decade. It had one of the highest Average Student Growth Percentile scores of any school on last year’s math assessment. Average Student Growth is measured by comparing student test score changes to other students that started with similar scores.

In ELA and math subjects, however, fewer MLK students in grades 3-8 met or exceeded expectations compared to last year, mirroring a statewide downward trend of MCAS scores since the pandemic.

The school was also named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2024, a recognition based on MCAS scores and success at narrowing achievement gaps. It is known for its Mandarin-English immersion program, one of two of its kind at public schools across New England.

Baldwin parents attributed its performance to the school’s educators and to “enrichment initiatives” through Friends of Baldwin, like STEM Day, field trips and guest speakers that help support individual students and also allow “every child [to see] themselves reflected in their school,” O’Connor said.

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The parents hope the district will be able to see broader successes.

“It’s time now to replicate that progress at other CPS schools,” Arnold said.