U.S. News magazine's latest rankings of public high schools across the country puts Glastonbury High School at No. 25 on the Connecticut list.
Nationwide, Glastonbury High School was ranked 755th best, overall, far above average for more than 19,400 schools examined.
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 was ranked No. 3 in the state; Amistad Academy in New Haven ranked No. 4. The other top 10 high schools in Connecticut, according to U.S. News:
5. Conard High School (West Hartford)
6. Wilton
7. Farmington
8. Ridgefield
9. Staples High School (Westport)
10. Canton
Most other high-performing schools in the state were in Fairfield County or in the Hartford suburbs.
Glastonbury's student-teacher ratio of 15:1 was slightly below the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering's ratio of 14:1.
The magazine's "College Readiness" rankings seemed to determine a good part of the rankings among the top 25 in Connecticut. That was measured by the percentage of students who passed the Advanced Placement exam.
Glastonbury had 40.4 percent of students passing, while the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering had 100 percent. Among the top 40 schools in U.S. News' Connecticut rankings, all that had a higher percentage than Glastonbury ranked higher overall, all schools with a lower percentage were ranked lower than Glastonbury.
Proficiency scores between schools had only minor differences among the top 25 in Connecticut. Proficiency in math and reading was based on each state's "exit exam," according to the magazine.
"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.
Glastonbury scored 4.2 in math and 3.8 in reading under the magazine's scoring system (meaning 95 percent were judged proficient in math; 94 percent in reading). The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, scored 3.9 and 4.1. Weston High School (ranked No. 3 overall in the state) scored 4.3 and 4.3, with only slightly higher percentages judged proficient than Glastonbury.
See the U.S. News Connecticut list for further comparisons.
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