Boston magazine, bostonmagazine.com, named Needham as one of the best public school districts in Massachusetts in their September 2011 issue.

The magazine crunched the numbers in an exclusive ranking of the best public school districts and biggest values in the area. Rankings were based on data gathered from consulting school officials and Web sites, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Determining factors of the district rankings includes test scores from elementary, middle and high schools in 135 districts; per pupil spending; student-to-teacher ratio; number of AP classes; graduation rate; percent of students who continue to college; and the amount of sports teams and clubs. George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College, calculated the mean scores for each category and then ranked the districts based on a weighted average of each school data point’s difference from the mean.