Darien High School 12th Best in State, US News Says

U.S. News magazine has come out with its rankings of high schools across the country, and Darien High School is ranked No. 12 on the Connecticut list.

Nationwide, Darien High School was ranked 362nd best, overall.

In terms of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), Darien ranked very high among the top schools in the country, at No. 31 (the closest high school to rank higher than Darien was Scarsdale High in Westchester County — No. 18).

Darien seems to be the top high school in Connecticut in that category. Wilton High ranks No. 42.

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 school in Hartford also ranks as the 5th best public magnet school in the United States; the East Hartford school is No. 10.)

Weston High School is No. 3 on the Connecticut list, and other Fairfield County high schools ranking higher than Darien are Wilton (No. 6), Ridgefield (No. 8) and Westport's Staples (No. 9). Most other high-performing schools in the state (in the top 20) were mostly in Fairfield County or in the western Hartford suburbs.

Among the top 20 schools in the magazine's Connecticut rankings, Darien had one of the lowest student/teacher ratios (11:1), the same as New Haven's Amistad Academy in New Haven and only exceeded by Lyme-Old Lyme High School (10:1).

Based on the percentage of students who took and passed Advance Placement examinations (what the magazine called "College Readiness Index"), Darien had a score of 53.9 out of 100 (which was the score that the state's top-ranked school happened to receive). Weston's score was 65.1; Wilton, 57.8; Ridgefield, 56.6.

Proficiency in math and reading was 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.

Darien scored 4.2 in math and 4.1 in reading under the magazine's scoring system. The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering (overall No. 1 in the state), scored lower than that: 3.9 and 4.1. Weston scored 4.3 and 4.3.

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