Simsbury Public Schools Ranked No. 6 in State, High School 5th Says Ranking Website

By David Gurliacci and Barbara Heins

Simsbury Public Schools has been ranked as the sixth best public school system in Connecticut and as the 100th best public school system in the country, according to the 2015 rankings released by Niche, a national online educational and neighborhood ranking service.

Only districts in New Canaan, Westport, Darien, Ridgefield and Glastonbury ranked higher in Connecticut, according to Niche.

And Staples High School was ranked the fifth best high school in Connecticut. (Weston, New Canaan, Darien and Westport high schools were ranked higher, in that order).

Niche’s Best Public School Districts survey ranked 8,738 school districts based on dozens of key statistics and 4.6 million opinions from 280,000 students and parents. A high ranking indicates that the district contains great schools with exceptional teachers, sufficient resources, and a diverse set of high-achieving students who rate their experiences very highly. Information on the methodology can be found here.

As seen on this Web page, Simsbury Public Schools received grades of “A+” in most areas: academics, “educational outcomes,” extracurricular activities and teachers; it received an “A” for food, administration & policies, health & safety and sports & fitness; it got an “A-” for resources & facilities. The grade was “B-” for “student culture and diversity.” It received a 3.9 out of 5 in the parent/student overall experience survey, with 173 reviews.

Here are Niche’s top 10 highest ranked school districts in Connecticut:

1. New Canaan
2. Westport
3. Darien
4. Ridgefield
5. Glastonbury
6. Simsbury
7. Wilton
8. Weston
9. Greenwich
10. Newtown

For Connecticut public high schools, here are the top 10 rankngs:

1. Weston
2. New Canaan
3. Staples (Westport)
4. Darien
5. Simsbury
6. Ridgefield
7. Wilton
8. Greenwich
9. Glastonbury
10. Amity Regional High School (Region 5 school district, covering Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany)