Amidst all the attention to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election, one bit of GOOD news was quietly released with little fanfare in October–the Niche.com 2021 Best Schools rankings for Public Schools across the country. This year, the Wilton Public Schools earned an overall A-plus grade from the website and rose four spots in the rankings since 2019, coming in at no. 4 on the list of Best School Districts in CT.
Niche.com typically releases its K-12 School & District Rankings ahead of the school year in August. To compile its list, the company analyzed stats from the U.S. Department of Education for factors like academics, teachers, culture and diversity–including state test scores, college readiness, graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores, teacher quality, public school district ratings, and more–with millions of reviews from students, parents and teachers about their local schools to rank 94,710 public schools, 24,099 private schools and 11,822 school districts nationwide.
Overall, at No. 4 out of 131 districts in Connecticut, Wilton Public Schools came in behind only Westport (1), New Canaan (2) and Darien (3). Rounding out the rest of the Top 10 districts were Greenwich (5), Amity Regional School District (Woodbridge) (6), Glastonbury (7), Weston (8), Ridgefield (9) and Avon (10).
Here’s where Wilton ranked on all the Niche.com lists, compared across Fairfield County, across CT, as well as across the nation:
The Wilton Public School District received an overall grade of A+. Broken down, the district report card included the following grades:
Academics: A+
Teachers: A+
Diversity: C-
College Prep: A+
Clubs and Activities: A
Health and Safety: A+
Administration: B+
Sports: A
Food: A+
Resources and Facilities: A
Complete Wilton Public School District Rankings
Here’s how the Wilton district as a whole fared, in comparison to school districts across America, within CT, within the New York City metropolitan area and with other Fairfield County school districts:
Best School Districts in CT–out of 131
- Westport (1)
- New Canaan (2)
- Darien (3)
- Wilton (4)
- No. 149 in US (up 47)
- No. 4 in CT (up 4)
- No. 40 in NYC area (up 4)
- No. 4 in Fairfield County (up 1)
- Greenwich (5)
- Amity Regional School District No. 5/Woodbridge (6)
- Glastonbury (7)
- Weston (8)
- Ridgefield (9)
- Avon (10)
- Fairfield (12)
- Trumbull (20)
- Newtown (22)
- Trumbull (24)
- Brookfield (33)
- Bethel (49)
- Norwalk (72)
Other Important Rankings for the District
Best Teachers: #9 in CT, #6 in Fairfield County, #92 in NYC, #545 in US
Best Places to Teach: #4 in CT, #3 in Fairfield County, #83 in NYC, #303 in US
Safest School Districts: #3 in CT, #2 in Fairfield County, #33 in NYC, #250 in US
Best School Districts for Athletes: #19 in CT, #9 in Fairfield County, #39 in NYC, #419 in US
Individual Wilton School Results
Niche.com has several sub-rankings for individual schools and features as well.
Best Public High Schools in CT–out of 206
Wilton High School was ranked at No. 5 out of 206 CT high schools, rising four spots over 2019, and at No. 5 out of 40 high schools in Fairfield County. Check out the ranking of WHS’s teachers too, at #9 in Fairfield County and at #23 in CT. Wilton High School also received an overall grade of A+.
- Staples HS/Westport (1)
- Darien HS (2)
- New Canaan HS (3)
- Greenwich HS (4)
- Wilton High School (#5 in CT, #5 in Fairfield County, #63 in NYC,#366 in US)
- Academics: A+
- Teachers: A
- Diversity: B-
- College Prep: A+
- Clubs and Activities: A
- Health and Safety: A+
- Administration: B+
- Sports: A+
- Food: A+
- Resources and Facilities: A-
- Weston HS (6)
- Ridgefield HS (7)
- Fairfield Ward HS (8)
- Joel Barlow HS/Redding (9)
- Fairfield Ludlowe HS (10)
Other Important Rankings for Wilton High School
Best Public High School Teachers: #23 in CT, #9 in Fairfield County, #200 in NYC
Best College Prep Public High Schools: #5 in CT, #5 in Fairfield County, #59 in NYC, #345 in US
Best High Schools for STEM: #18 in CT, #10 in Fairfield County, #100 in NYC, #602 in US
Best High Schools for Athletes: #29 in CT, #12 in Fairfield County, #57 in NYC, #724 in US
Best Public Middle Schools in CT–Out of 293
Middlebrook Middle School came in at #10 out of 310 CT public middle schools–7 spots higher than in 2019. Middlebrook’s teachers were ranked #9 public middle school teachers in Fairfield County, out of 71 middle schools. Middlebrook earned an overall grade of A.
- Bedford MS/Westport (1)
- Coleytown Middle School/Westport (2)
- Saxe MS/New Canaan (3)
- Middlesex MS/Darien (4)
- Amity Middle School/Bethany (5)
- Amity Middle School/Orange (6)
- Eastern MS/Greenwich (7)
- Elm City College Prep/New Haven (8)
- Gideon Welles School/Glastonbury (9)
- Middlebrook Middle School (#10 in CT, #6 in Fairfield County, #89 in NYC, #728 in US)
- Academics: A
- Teachers: A
- Diversity: B-
Other Important Rankings for Middlebrook:
Best Middle School Teachers: #21 in CT, #9 in Fairfield County, #242 in NYC
Best Public Elementary Schools in CT–out of 586
Cider Mill Elementary School (Grades 3-5) was ranked #32 out of 148 public elementary schools in Fairfield County, and #53 out of 586 statewide public elementary schools. Cider Mill earned an A grade overall.
Miller-Driscoll Elementary School (pre-K, K-2) was not ranked on Niche.com’s list. It did receive an overall grade of B+, although there was no grade for academics; M-D teachers received a grade of B, and the school got a B grade for diversity.
- Green’s Farms School/Westport K-5 (1)
- Long Lots School/Westport K-5 (2)
- East School/New Canaan K-4 (3)
- West School/New Canaan K-4 (4)
- Coleytown Elementary/Westport (5)
- South School/New Canaan K-4 (6)
- Stamford Charter School for Excellence (7)
- King’s Highway/Westport K-5 (8)
- Saugatuck/Westport K-5 (9)
- Tokeneke Elementary/Darien (14)
- Hindley Elementary/Darien (15)
- Ox Ridge Elementary/Darien (18)
- Branchville Elementary/Ridgefield (21)
- Dwight Elementary/Fairfield (22)
- Cider Mill School 3-5 (#53 in CT, #29 in Fairfield County, #323 in NYC)
- Academics: A
- Teachers: A
- Diversity: B
- Miller-Driscoll Elementary PK, K-2 (NR)
- Teachers: B
- Diversity: B
Ranking schools and school districts is an infantile pursuit, but go ahead, knock yourselves out. The up-side to the endeavor is the good laugh it affords: the people doing the ranking will be out of the game, or dead, by the time today’s first grader comes into his own, and have no idea what that future adult will need for his growth and survival. Knowing simply isn’t within their ken. The downside is that the presumptive knowledge that inheres in the ranking system is guaranteed to make each successive generation of schools more and more anachronistic. Yesterday’s dummies will make tomorrow’s dumber. 🙂