Newsweek Ranks 15 Connecticut High Schools As Best in the U.S.

Written by Marc Torrence and Jaimie Cura; originally published on August 19

Just in time for the start of the school year, Newsweek released its annual list Wednesday, of the top public high schools in America for 2015.

The rankings were compiled using several metrics, including graduation rate, college enrollment rate, SAT and ACT scores, AP and IB scores and participation, teacher-student ratio and dropout rates.

“Some factors are more important, especially since our rankings focus on college readiness,” Jim Impoco, editor in chief of Newsweek, told Patch via email. “We place emphasis on criteria like college enrollment and graduation rate since we know that those are some of the biggest indicators of whether students are prepared for college.”

Top 10 Nationwide

1. Thomas Jefferson High (Alexandria, Va.)
2. High Technology High School (Lincroft, N.J.)
3. Academy for Mathematics Science and Engineering (Rockaway, N.J.)
4. Union County Magnet High School (Scotch Plains, N.J.)
5. Bergen County Academies (Hackensack, N.J.)
6. Gretchen Whitney High (Cerritos, Ca.)
7. Middlesex County Academy for Math Science & Engineering (Edison, N.J.)
8. International Academy (Bloomfield Hills, M.I.)
9. Academy of Allied Health and Science (Neptune, N.J.)
10. Walter Payton College Preparatory HS (Chicago, Ill.)

New Jersey has six of the top 10 public high schools in the country, while Virginia, Michigan, California and Illinois had one each. The list includes 500 schools. Thomas Jefferson in Alexandria, Va. took the top spot for the second year in a row.

Top 15 in Connecticut

1. Weston High School, Weston: #47
2. Staples High School, Westport: #63
3. Ridgefield High School, Ridgefield: #119
4. Connecticut IB Academy of East Hartford: #158
5. Lyme-Old Lyme High School: #185
6. Daniel Hand High School, Madison: #213
7. Simsbury High School: #273
8. Newtown High School: #308
9. Farmington High School: #312
10. Woodstock Academy, Woodstock: #337
11. Haddam-Killingworth High School, #353
12. Pomperaug High School, Southbury: #374
13. East Granby High School, #377
14. Hall High School, West Hartford: #416
15. South Windsor High School: #479

Related

• Three CT Schools That Succeed Despite Inequality

This year’s rankings were weighted by:

• Enrollment Rate—25 percent
• Graduation Rate—20 percent
• Weighted AP/IB/Dual Enrollment composite—17.5 percent
• Weighted SAT/ACT composite—17.5 percent
• Change in student enrollment between 9th-12th grades, to control for dropout rates—10 percent
• Counselor-to-Student Ratio—10 percent

“The top 20 schools on the ‘America’s Top High Schools’ are neck and neck,” Impoco said. “They all have perfect or near-perfect college enrollment and graduation rates. You start to see more variation as you look further down the list and also when you look at the factors that have less weight, like test scores.”

Click here for the full list of Newsweek’s best high schools in the U.S.

(image via shutterstock)