After a one-year gap away from making an appearance on U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools ranking of American high schools, Wilton High School found itself back in the top tier schools. The magazine ranked Wilton at number 10 in CT (out of 215) and at number 439 nationally–an impressive rating given that the magazine considered more than 20,500 high schools in 50 states and DC.
Wilton was also ranked in the top 100 of best STEM schools nationally, logging in at number 98.
The 2018 Best High Schools list awards the top 5,948 public high schools with gold, silver and bronze medals, indicating their level of college readiness. Wilton High School was named among the “best,” earning a “gold” ranking from the magazine for 2018. Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and other markers demonstrating how well they prepare students for college.
The overall 2018 rankings were slightly lower than in 2016, the last time WHS made the list. That year the school also earned “gold” status, ranking 7th out of 193 CT schools, and at number 386 nationally.
The other schools in our DRG (district reference group) also made appearances on the Best High Schools list in the following order:
Ridgefield: #5 in CT, #332 in U.S.
Westport’s Staples: #8 in CT, #394 in U.S.
Darien: #9 in CT, #410 in U.S.
Wilton: #10 in CT, #439 in U.S.
Weston: #13 in CT, #458 in U.S.
New Canaan: #15 in CT, #472 in U.S.
Redding/Joel Barlow: #16 in CT, #592 in U.S.
The data considered by U.S. News & World Report was gathered from the 2015-2016 school year. To learn more about the magazine’s methodology in determining rankings, visit the U.S. News website.
You’d think with the amount of money thrown at the school system Wilton High School should be in the top 10 nationally. But only 439th? Granted that’s out of 28,000 public schools, but still it’s like saying:
“We went to Olympics!”
“Did you win anything?”
“No, we placed 439th.”
“Oh. Well, at least you tried.”