School rankings can come from any number of sources and help people decide where to live and grow a family, help inform districts from an outside perspective where improvement might be needed and even create bragging rights between towns.
But just how significant those rankings are and what the accuracy level is remains a question in some cases and multiple critics in Connecticut say some of the higher marks for districts and schools reflect wealth and resources, not necessarily effective teaching. The includes the recently released Niche school rankings, which graded each district in the state and ranked them in order.
"I don't think there's a great use for them, given the inputs that they use, which are limited," professor Casey Cobb of UConn's Neag School of Education said.
The for-profit company recently released its rankings of the best school districts in the nation and each state. Six of Connecticut's 10 best public districts are in Fairfield County, according to the report, and all of the top 10 districts in the state have less than 9,000 students.
No. 6 overall in Connecticut, Glastonbury public schools secured the top spot in best districts for athletes in the state and No. 5 best school district to teach. On the national level, Glastonbury ranked third best district for athletes. The district scored an overall A+, with top marks in every category except for Bs in diversity and food and As in administration and resources and facilities.
"We appreciate the way Niche evaluates school districts on a large variety of criteria," Glastonbury School Superintendent Alan Bookman said. "We are proud to be included in their list of high quality school systems and best places to teach. We are also pleased our athletic program is among the best in the country."
Ten Connecticut schools were included on Niche's 2025 top 200 private high schools across the U.S. For all schools it ranks, Niche has compiled about 2.5 million reviews from students, alumni, parents and teachers, according to the company, "more reviews than any other place on the Internet."
"This gives an unparalleled, honest view into what people really think about a school," the company says. "We get deep too, asking questions about everything from college prep to cafeteria food."
The company also touts its focus on accuracy and dedication to collecting updated data. For the latest ranking, Niche removed information on SAT and ACT standardized test scores, reflecting a nationwide de-emphasis on the college admissions tests.
But Cobb said "the measures that determine the rankings are not really sensitive to how schools operate. They give you snapshots of common, and observable, available metrics, but those don't necessarily show how a school performs and serves kids."
Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said she delved into the Niche data trying to learn how the company measures quality teaching, but came up empty.
"They say they talk to a lot of people, but quantifying human relationships is always hard and school districts are always about relationships," Dias said. "We're in the people business."
A special education teacher's students, for example, likely will not produce high test scores, "but does that mean I'm a bad teacher? I don't think so," she said. Teachers help many kids and prepare them for success in ways that are not measurable, Dias said.
"We have a lot of really amazing things happening in schools that we don't quantify," she said.
Economics, of course, plays a role in students' opportunities, Dias said. If both parents are working, they may have less time to support their children's education. Also, she said, crowded classrooms play a part in the level of behavioral problems that teachers have to deal with that distract from learning.
Education experts have warned for years, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune article available at the Government Technology news site (govtech.com), that ratings by Niche and another well-known company, Great Schools, "say less about how well the schools are serving students and more about who enrolls there." The ratings provide a limited picture of school quality, according to experts quoted in the November 2023 article, and favor schools in neighborhoods that are wealthy and disproportionately white.
For each school or district ranking, Niche includes a link to "view nearby homes." For Connecticut's top-rated New Canaan public schools, recent housing choices included a $7 million 7-bed, 8-bath home perched on one of the town's highest points. Next down the list was a $1.6 million condominium. The picture was similar for the top rated school districts in the nation, several of which are clustered in suburbs north of Chicago.
Parents magazine advised parents exploring schools to get out to the school and gauge for themselves whether students and teachers are engaged in learning. Cobb agreed and said parents should talk to teachers "just to get a sense of the culture."