Cambridgeport vs Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary outranks Cambridgeport Elementary by a wide margin within Massachusetts despite the two schools sitting just 0.8 miles apart in Cambridge. Martin Luther King Jr. holds the #2 position out of 1,791 Massachusetts elementary schools, while Cambridgeport ranks #42 — itself an elite placement, but 40 spots behind its neighbor. The overall rating gap is 0.8 points, with Martin Luther King Jr. scoring 9.9/10 against Cambridgeport's 9.1/10, making this a comparison between two genuinely high-performing schools rather than a strong-versus-weak matchup.

The academic and growth data sharpen that gap considerably. Martin Luther King Jr. posts an academic score of 9.8/10 versus Cambridgeport's 8.3/10 — a 1.5-point difference that represents meaningful distance at the top of the scale. On growth, Martin Luther King Jr. scores 9.9/10 against Cambridgeport's already-strong 9.2/10, meaning students at MLK are advancing at a faster rate relative to peers even after controlling for starting point. Parents weighing long-term trajectory, not just current proficiency, will find Martin Luther King Jr.'s growth advantage particularly relevant.

Both schools serve PK through grade 5 and operate with similar classroom density. Cambridgeport enrolls 285 students against Martin Luther King Jr.'s 328, and their student-teacher ratios are nearly identical — 10.6:1 at Cambridgeport and 10.9:1 at Martin Luther King Jr. — so neither school holds a structural advantage in adult attention per child. The slightly smaller enrollment at Cambridgeport does produce a modestly more intimate campus footprint, though the difference is not dramatic.

At the grade-band level, both schools cover the same PK–05 span, so families with children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade can plan an uninterrupted elementary experience at either campus. The decisive differentiators remain performance-based: Martin Luther King Jr.'s state rank of #2 and its 9.8 academic score place it among the very top elementary schools in Massachusetts, while Cambridgeport's #42 statewide rank still puts it comfortably within the top 3 percent of the state.