Newsweek Rates Wilton High as "Best in State"

WILTON, Conn. – Wilton's public school district has long been considered among the best in the state. One survey now ranks Wilton High School as the best in Connecticut.

Wilton High is atop the list in Connecticut, according to Newsweek magazine's latest survey and ranking system that for more than a decade has published an annual list of the top high schools in the country.

With a 96 percent graduation rate, 15.2 student-to-teacher ratio, 95 percent college-bound rate, average 1810 SAT score and an average of 2.1 college-level tests per graduating senior, Wilton is listed as the 141st best high school out of 500 ranked throughout the country.

Joel Barlow High School, which includes students from Easton and Redding, is ranked as sixth best in Connecticut and 312th overall.

Wilton School Superintendent Gary Richards said he has mixed feelings about the ranking.

"I believe it is fair to say that we have mixed feelings about this recognition," Richards said in a statement. "On one hand, it is gratifying to have Wilton High School recognized in a national publication. However, we believe that such recognition that is largely based on performance on SAT tests and the number of students who take AP or International Baccalaureate tests (IB) is incomplete."

Richards added, "In past years, a group of superintendents in the tristate area have expressed our views on this ranking. We have stated that 'in reality, it is impossible to know which high schools are "the best" in the nation.'

"Such an investigation into quality should also take into consideration the unique needs of the communities they serve," the group states.

The group also states that "student achievement is clearly a complex recipe with many ingredients and has to be looked at on a continuum, and cannot be derived from a finite set of statistics."

Newsweek enlisted a panel of experts from national education institutions including Teach for America and Stanford University. The panel developed criteria to examine a school's ability to produce graduates fully prepared to succeed in the next stage of their education.

Newsweek communicated with educators from more than 100,000 high schools across the nation. Self-reported data from more than 1,100 schools was then analyzed to produce the final list of the top 500 in the country.

More than 1,100 of America's top public high schools supplied internal data, according to Newsweek.

Do you agree with Newsweek's ranking Wilton High School as the best in Connecticut? Leave a comment below.

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