Acton-Boxborough Regional School District

Acton and Boxborough are one school district, not two that resemble each other. The state reports a single set of figures for them — the same MCAS percentile, the same rank, the same spending per pupil — and the schools below belong to the district rather than to either town. Whatever separates these towns, it is not the district.

A 4BR runs $950k in Boxborough and $1.1M in Acton — $150k, or 1.16×, for a comparable house in the same school district. That gap buys no difference in the district at all, which makes it about as clean a demonstration as this site has of how much of a house price is the address rather than the schooling.

What the same district costs in each town

The schools column is missing on purpose: it would be the same value repeated. Every town links through to its own full page.

#Town4BR house2BR condoTax rateEst. billCommuteRail
1Boxborough$950kT3$535k$15.50T4≈$14,70060 minT3None
2Acton$1.1MT3$590k$16.23T4≈$17,90054 minT3Rail · 58 min

How the district performs

School tierTier 1 · top schools Tier 1
MCAS percentile92nd
Growth percentile60th
Niche district rank17th of 236
Graduation rate94.4%
Pupils5,256
Spending per pupil$22,300
State accountabilityMeeting or exceeding targets

The district’s schools

Every school the district runs. Which building a child attends is the district’s business and often follows the town, so this is not a list of choices — it is what the district is.

SchoolGrades
Carol Huebner Early Childhood ProgramPK
Blanchard Memorial SchoolK–6
C.T. Douglas Elementary SchoolK–6
McCarthy-Towne SchoolK–6
Luther Conant SchoolK–6
Paul P Gates Elementary SchoolK–6
Merriam SchoolK–6
Raymond J Grey Junior High7–8

Member towns head to head

Acton vs Boxborough
$1.1M vs $950k for a 4BR

Read next

Studies from this site that turn on something specific about the Acton-Boxborough towns — each one says what.

How much income do you need to buy in a good Massachusetts school district?
The Tier 1–2 towns here need a median $288k of household income for a 4BR. As a condo, the same districts ask far less.
7 min read
What a top school district actually adds to a house price
The Tier 1–2 towns here run a median $1.02M, against $650k for the state's Tier 3–4 towns. Close to Boston a strong district roughly doubles the price; an hour out it costs 36% more.
7 min read
The better the schools, the more you pay to own instead of rent
Buying costs a median 24 years of rent across these towns, against 18 statewide — an expensive place to own rather than rent.
6 min read
Test scores tell you who moved in. Growth tells you what the school did.
In two of these districts the state's two figures disagree by 15 percentile points or more — and buyers only ever read one of them.
7 min read

District membership, enrolment and per-pupil spending come from the state’s DESE reports; MCAS and graduation figures are the state’s own. Prices are estimates calibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin, and tax bills apply each town’s FY2026 rate to its own median 4BR estimate, so they are indicative rather than an assessment. Data last reviewed — see the methodology.

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