Schools

CT's Best High Schools Ranked By U.S. News

Here's how Connecticut's best high schools stack up to each other, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Connecticut high schools overall tied for seventh best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 rankings of best high schools in the country. The highest ranked Connecticut school was Amistad Academy at 55th nationally.

15 Connecticut schools received a gold medal, 26 received a silver medal and 15 schools received a bronze medal.

The 2018 best high school rankings were released on Wednesday and evaluate over 20,500 public high schools. U.S. News identified schools that best serve all students and assessed how prepared students are for college-level work. Schools are also recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals with gold indicating the greatest level of college readiness.

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The state-by-state performance rating was based on which states have the highest the highest proportion of schools with gold and silver medals. Based on this metric, Massachusetts was the leading performer, followed by California and Maryland.

Seven percent of Connecticut’s high schools got a gold medal and 12.1 percent silver.

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“Top-ranked schools succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News, said in a press release.

Here’s how Connecticut schools finished according to place and medal in the 2018 rankings:

2018 State RankSchoolDistrictCityMedal
1Amistad AcademyAmistad Academy DistrictNew HavenGOLD
2Connecticut IB AcademyEast Hartford School DistrictEast HartfordGOLD
3Achievement First Hartford Academy Inc.Achievement First Hartford AcHartfordGOLD
4Academy of Aerospace and EngineeringCapitol Region Education CounWindsorGOLD
5Ridgefield High SchoolRidgefield School DistrictRidgefieldGOLD
6Marine Science Magnet High School of SoutheasternLearnGrotonGOLD
7Greenwich High SchoolGreenwich School DistrictGreenwichGOLD
8Staples High SchoolWestport School DistrictWestportGOLD
9Darien High SchoolDarien School DistrictDarienGOLD
10Wilton High SchoolWilton School DistrictWiltonGOLD
11Hall High SchoolWest Hartford School DistrictWest HartfordGOLD
12Conard High SchoolWest Hartford School DistrictWest HartfordGOLD
13Weston High SchoolWeston School DistrictWestonGOLD
14Simsbury High SchoolSimsbury School DistrictSimsburyGOLD
15New Canaan High SchoolNew Canaan School DistrictNew CanaanGOLD
16Joel Barlow High SchoolRegional School District 09ReddingSILVER
17Fairfield Ludlowe High SchoolFairfield School DistrictFairfieldSILVER
18Newtown High SchoolNewtown School DistrictSandy HookSILVER
19Granby Memorial High SchoolGranby School DistrictGranbySILVER
20Farmington High SchoolFarmington School DistrictFarmingtonSILVER
21Fairfield Warde High SchoolFairfield School DistrictFairfieldSILVER
22East Lyme High SchoolEast Lyme School DistrictEast LymeSILVER
23Amity Regional High SchoolRegional School District 05WoodbridgeSILVER
24South Windsor High SchoolSouth Windsor School DistrictSouth WindsorSILVER
25Avon High SchoolAvon School DistrictAvonSILVER
26Rham High SchoolRegional School District 08HebronSILVER
27Glastonbury High SchoolGlastonbury School DistrictGlastonburySILVER
28Cheshire High SchoolCheshire School DistrictCheshireSILVER
29Guilford High SchoolGuilford School DistrictGuilfordSILVER
30Daniel Hand High SchoolMadison School DistrictMadisonSILVER
31The Academy of Information TechnologyStamford School DistrictStamfordSILVER
32The Gilbert SchoolThe Gilbert SchoolWinstedSILVER
33Bristol Central High SchoolBristol School DistrictBristolSILVER
34Fitch Senior High SchoolGroton School DistrictGrotonSILVER
35CREC Medical Prof. and Teacher Prep. AcadCapitol Region Education CounNew BritainSILVER
36University High School of Science and EngineeringHartford School DistrictHartfordSILVER
37Brien McMahon High SchoolNorwalk School DistrictNorwalkSILVER
38Portland High SchoolPortland School DistrictPortlandSILVER
39Trumbull High SchoolTrumbull School DistrictTrumbullSILVER
40Stratford High SchoolStratford School DistrictStratfordSILVER
41Hamden High SchoolHamden School DistrictHamdenSILVER
42Sports and Medical Sciences AcademyHartford School DistrictHartfordBRONZE
43Rockville High SchoolVernon School DistrictVernonBRONZE
44Tolland High SchoolTolland School DistrictTollandBRONZE
45E. O. Smith High SchoolRegional School District 19StorrsBRONZE
46Stafford High SchoolStafford School DistrictStafford SpringsBRONZE

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To determine the rankings, U.S. News teamed up with the social science research firm RTI International. A variety of data sources, including the Common Core of Data, College Board and the International Baccalaureate, were used.

A four-step process was used to rank all eligible schools. The first two steps were to determine whether students were performing better than statistically expected in the state and whether minority were performing at or better than the state average for minority students, which was the second step. The third step required schools to meet or surpass a certain graduation benchmark and the final step was to determine college readiness. (You can read the full methodology here.)

The top 10 high schools in the U.S. overall are:

  1. BASIS Scottsdale (AZ)
  2. BASIS Chandler (AZ)
  3. BASIS Oro Valley (AZ)
  4. BASIS Tucson North (AZ)
  5. BASIS Flagstaff (AZ)
  6. Meridian School (TX)
  7. International Academy of Macomb (MI)
  8. BASIS Peoria (AZ)
  9. Baccalaureate School for Global Education (NY)
  10. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)

Click here to see the full rankings and for more insight on the data.

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