Dudley-Charlton Regional School District

Charlton and Dudley 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 $450k in Dudley and $550k in Charlton — $100k, or 1.22×, 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
1Dudley$450kT1$260k$11.50T2≈$5,20090 minT4None
2Charlton$550kT1$315k$12.50T3≈$6,90088 minT4None

How the district performs

School tierTier 3 · solid schools Tier 3
MCAS percentile34th
Growth percentile45th
Niche district rank106th of 236
Graduation rate90.6%
Pupils3,568
Spending per pupil$17,572
State accountabilityModerate progress toward 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
Heritage School2–4
Dudley Elementary2–4
Charlton ElementaryPK–1
Mason Road SchoolPK–1
Charlton Middle School5–8
Dudley Middle School5–8

Member towns head to head

Charlton vs Dudley
$550k vs $450k for a 4BR

Read next

Studies from this site that turn on something specific about the Dudley-Charlton Regional towns — each one says what.

Private school is not a plan B for a weak school district
Both towns here have no accredited private school within twelve miles at all — so there is no private plan B from them.
7 min read
The best Massachusetts towns if you don’t commute to Boston
A median 89 minutes from Boston. These are not Boston commuter towns, and the school premium you are not paying for that is 26%.
7 min read
Your town is, more than anything else, a school system
Education is a median 53% of what these towns spend — the single biggest line in 217 of the state's 219 budgets.
6 min read
The cheap towns grew fastest. The expensive ones made far more money.
These towns grew a median 6.7% a year over the last decade. Whether that beat the expensive towns depends entirely on whether you count percentages or dollars.
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.

Other regional districts

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Acton, Boxborough
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Bridgewater, Raynham
Concord-Carlisle
Carlisle, Concord
Dennis-Yarmouth
Dennis, Yarmouth
Dover-Sherborn
Dover, Sherborn
Freetown-Lakeville
Freetown, Lakeville
All regional school districts →