Amity School Officials Explain U.S. News Ranking Drop

ORANGE, CT — Amity Regional School District administrators released a letter to the school community that explained why the district fell in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report's best Connecticut high schools list.

Amity dropped to 28th place in the latest rankings. Niche ranked Amity 19th in Connecticut.

Below is part of a letter school administrators sent to members of the community:

The 2022 U.S. News high school rankings are based on data from the 2019-2020 school year. Therefore, the rankings are, at best, based on data from our schools 2 years ago.

However, since most schools across the United States shut their doors in March 2020, U.S. News changed their calculation process from prior publications of this rankings list.

With little assessment data available from the 2019-2020 school year, “U. S. News relied on historic assessment data from the three prior ranking years...Specifically, an average of the following years and academic subjects were used: 2016-2017 math and reading assessment data; 2017-2018 math and reading assessment data; and 2018-2019 math, reading and science assessment data.”

This meant that 50% of the data used to calculate the rankings is old data, while the remaining data (like graduation rates) comes from the 2019-2020 school year. The argument that what occurs in Amity now is somehow reflected in the 2022 U.S. News rankings is untrue.

School administrators highlighted the district's high graduation rate, advanced placement course offerings:

Rather the focus on the rankings, consider that Amity Regional High School offers a
comprehensive educational experience to students that encompasses so much more than the test scores that go into a ranking calculation. Some experiences worth noting include:
• 29 Advanced Placement (AP) course offerings with 54 AP Sections
• 443 different students enrolled in AP classes for a total of 956 AP course enrollments

• 3 UCONN Early College Experience (ECE) Classes with a total enrollment of 57
students
• 98 students enrolled in our Science Research Project (SRP)
• 8 Pre-Apprenticeship Manufacturing Program candidates
• 321 Senior Service Learning Program (SSLP) students

The State of Connecticut’s most recent Next Generation Accountability Report show Amity
Regional High School above the state average with:
• 98.4% of students in grades 9, 10, 11 on track to high school graduation
• 98.3% of students graduating high school in 4 years
• 87.7% of students enrolling in postsecondary education within first year of graduation
• 96.1% of students returning to postsecondary education after their first year of enrollment

Beyond academics, our high school students can experience approximately 50 different student
clubs, extracurricular, and co-curricular activities. Our athletics department is comprised of 67
different athletic teams. In the current school year, Amity Regional High School has had a total
roster 1,215 of athletes. Our students have opportunity for music adjudication, scholastic arts
competition, and performance in both the dramas and musicals of Amity Creative Theater.
Amity students also have choice to attend area magnet schools and vocational schools if the
specialized programming of those schools meet their post-secondary goals and academic needs.