Schools

US News: Weston High 3rd Best in CT; Joel Barlow, 13th

Both Weston High School and Joel Barlow High School were very high in U.S. News rankings of public high schools.

U.S. News magazine's latest rankings of public high schools across the country puts Weston High School at No. 3 on the Connecticut list and Joel Barlow at No. 13.

Nationwide, Weston High School was ranked 182nd best; Joel Barlow, 384.

Connecticut rankings

The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Hartford ranks No. 1 in Connecticut, followed by Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy in East Hartford, both public magnet schools.

(The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering also ranks as the 5th best public magnet school in the United States; Connecticut International Baccalaureate is No. 10.)

Besides Weston High School's No. 3 and Joel Barlow's No. 13 rankings on the Connecticut list, other high-ranking Fairfield County high schools  are Wilton (No. 6), Ridgefield (8), Westport's Staples (9), Darien (12), Greenwich (15), New Canaan (17) and Fairfield Ludlow (18). High-performing schools in the state tended to be concentrated in Fairfield County or in the western Hartford suburbs.

More details on the rankings

Based on the percentage of students who took and passed Advance Placement examinations (what the magazine called "College Readiness Index"), Weston had a score of 65.1 out of 100; Joel Barlow, 51.9.

Weston and Joel Barlow each have student-teacher ratios of 13:1 and almost the same similar scores in the magazine's estimation of math and reading proficiency, based on each state's "exit exam."

"We compared each school's math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these student groups and then selected schools that were performing better than this state average," the magazine said in a description of its methodology for ranking schools.

In math proficiency, Weston scored 4.3; Joel Barlow, 4.2. In reading, they each scored 4.3. Oddly, the U.S. News Web page where the list appears shows Joel Barlow to have a somewhat higher percentage of students judged proficient in math (98 percent proficient) than Weston (97 percent proficient).

The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering (overall No. 1 in the state), scored lower than both schools: 3.9 and 4.1.

See the U.S. News Connecticut list for further comparisons.


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