Original Research by School Decision on Cambridge Rindge and Latin
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School sits at the center of Cambridge, a dense urban city defined by its deep integration with Harvard University and MIT, a thriving biotech sector, and a compact layout of squares that serve as neighborhood hubs. The school itself, often referred to as CRLS, is the single comprehensive public high school for the Cambridge Public Schools district, serving grades nine through twelve. Its enrollment is large for a high school in this region, drawing from the city’s full residential mix. The student body is diverse: White students make up the largest share, followed by Black students, then Hispanic and Asian students, with a notable proportion of students who identify as two or more races. The school does report a small number of ungraded students. Data on students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, on students with Individualized Education Programs, and on English learners was not available, so a parent would need to ask the school or district directly for those counts to understand the extent of economic diversity and special education services.
State testing results for the school were not available in the data examined. No proficiency rates across subjects were reported, and no graduation rate was present. Because CRLS is a regular high school serving tested grades, a parent may want to look into this further with the school or the Cambridge district to obtain current academic performance and four-year graduation figures. The school’s neighbor comparison, which uses districts in Middlesex County as a reference point, could not produce index values for proficiency, graduation, or chronic absenteeism because the data was missing at the entity level.
Cambridge itself, where families would live and rent, is among the most expensive housing markets in the state. Home values are well above the state and national benchmarks, and rents are high relative to incomes. The city’s small land area and high population density, combined with a strong biotech and tech employment base, create a competitive market. A large share of a typical household income would go toward rent or mortgage. For a family considering the school, this is a significant factor in the overall equation.
The school and district have recently undertaken notable structural changes. The Cambridge School Committee approved moving eighth grade from the district’s four upper schools into CRLS starting in the 2025–2026 school year, creating a unified eighth through twelfth grade campus. This reorganization, described in publicly reported sources, responds to enrollment imbalances and permanently alters the middle school experience in Cambridge; families with middle-school-age children should be aware that from that point forward, their child would begin high school a year earlier than typical. The district also launched a universal preschool program for the city’s youngest children, funded through city funds and state grants, and implemented a major inclusion initiative that moved students with disabilities from substantially separate classrooms into general education settings with additional support. A new comprehensive sex education curriculum called HealthSmart for grades seven through twelve was adopted, and the district’s budget saw an increase to fund expanded preschool, social-emotional learning, and the inclusion initiative, while the residential property tax rate remained stable.
What this means for a parent or resident is that Cambridge Rindge and Latin operates in a high-cost, urban setting with a student body that reflects the city’s racial and ethnic diversity. Academic performance data is not available in this account, leaving a gap that would need to be filled directly. The school is in a period of physical and pedagogical transition—absorbing an additional grade level, working under a new approach to inclusion, and adopting updated curriculum. Families who value a large, centralized high school embedded in a walkable, amenity-rich city with world-class universities next door may find CRLS appealing, but they will want to pursue current test outcomes and graduation rates directly from the school to round out the picture.
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