The Bromfield School

14 Mass Avenue

School District

Harvard
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:10
Type

public

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on December 06, 2023

My child goes to Bromfield and it's fine. The education is very traditional and looks a lot like classes that I attended in high school. There has not been much progress. The classes are average - nothing inspiring. The school prides itself on being successful on standardized measurements. This is an affluent town and it should not come as a surprise that students do well on on those measures of success. There is a big emphasis on grades and test scores with little attention to how students learn. There is a culture of compliance and often punitive language is used, showing a lack of trust in families and kids. The best part about the school is simply the nature of being a small school with kids that have grown up together. The school does very little to build on this and create community. One other thing to note is that most of the teachers my child has had do really like kids and are there for the right reasons.
Submitted by parent on January 05, 2020

Harvard is a lovely town. By far, the worst thing about living in Harvard is Bromfield. I mean this in two ways - Bromfield is a toxic student environment, and it does a poor job at teaching, because that is not the goal that is rewarded.It is strange that a community that values education so highly has such dysfunctional schools. I believe people are trying to do the right thing, but a few fundamental mistakes have caused a vicious cycle to develop.The foundational problem is that there is no feedback loop - when problems are raised, they are _always_ blamed on either the students or the parents. I’ve seen complaints dismissed because students are too lazy, or hard-working, or procrastinated, or are too eager, or are just young & inexperienced. Complaints from parents are dismissed because parents are crazy. I’m sure those reasons are sometimes valid, but if you dismiss everything ever raised, real problems never get solved.The main feedback teachers have from the district is that their classes should have a normal grade distribution. The problem is that Harvard is home to many high-achieving families who care deeply about education. If you look at AP Calc, most students get 5s. Somehow the same population of students gets normally distributed grades in all other classes.To achieve that distribution, Bromfield is very demanding, but it does not teach everything it requires students to know. You can see this by the very high percentage of students (>60%?) that use external tutors or summer classes. When I ask teachers where certain skills or material is being taught, there is no good answer. It is simply not being taught.Student stress is an epidemic because of the difference between teaching level and performance expectations. The students never get a break - a massive amount of homework is assigned every day, over summer, over Christmas, over nearly every weekend and holiday, even over multi-day school field trips(!). Complaints are blamed on the students.Bromfield is unreasonably demanding, because that is the only way to separate its students into grades. It judges more than it teaches.My children have gotten good grades at Bromfield, but it isn’t worth the needless pain and suffering. Highschool children should not be burning out.
Submitted by other on September 02, 2014

The Harvard Schools are exemplary. My mother and her six siblings attended the Harvard Schools when Bromfield was a private academy. Her parents had immigrated to America, and they found a home in Harvard. My eight brothers and sisters and I attended the Hildreth and the Bromfield Schools. We have all done well in life. Several members of my family continued to live in Harvard and their children went to the Harvard Schools. Now several nieces and nephews live in Harvard and their children attend the Harvard Schools. When I return to town, I am most impressed with the way the librarians at the Harvard Public Library work with the students from Bromfield School. There is good coordination between the schools and the other agencies in the community.
Submitted by parent on July 11, 2011

My child attends Bromfield School. We relocated here from Texas and although it was a little challenging to get used to it has been a great move and we are very please with our childs education so far. I have another child entering this school in the fall.
Submitted by parent on June 17, 2011

A fine school if you are already doing great. Woe betide you if you fall off the perfect path--there is no help or sympathy for you. Parents are very, very involved in education in the town from the bottom on up, and that is why the statistics look good for this school. Don't be fooled.