U.S. News and World Report ranked Staples as the sixth best high school in Connecticut, an improvement of three spots from its 9th place ranking in 2024. Staples improved its national ranking from 546 to 391.
U.S. News and World Report ranked Connecticut IB Academy as the number one high school in Connecticut for the second year in a row. Following Connecticut IB Academy in the rankings were New Canaan High School, Weston High School, Darien High School and Wilton High School.
“I’m happy to see our ranking improve but I’m still surprised that our ranking is not better,” Rachel Guzman ’26 said. “The school has put in a lot of effort in helping the students, whether it’s academic help or preparing them for future plans like college.”
U.S. News and World Report’s methodology includes six factors: college readiness, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance, colleague curriculum breadth and graduation rate. College readiness and college curriculum, which are based largely on the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes taken, combine to make up 40% of a school’s score.
The Connecticut IB Academy, which is an International Baccalaureate school, benefited from its curriculum and academic rigor. 97% of its students took at least one IB exam, which is considered equivalent to an AP exam, and 92% of its students passed at least one IB exam. By comparison, 72% of Staples students took at least one AP exam, and 66% passed at least one AP exam. The rankings do not account for Early College Experience (ECE) classes, which are college-level classes and weighted the same as AP classes.
In contrast, Niche, another ranking platform, ranked Staples as the number one public high school in Connecticut in 2024. Unlike U.S. News, Niche’s rankings weigh factors such as student and parent reviews, extracurricular activities, clubs and diversity, in addition to academics.
“Staples might be ranked lower [for U.S. News] compared to Niche because of the different criteria each platform looks at,” Sam Abramowitz ’27 said. “There are many factors like academics, sports and competitiveness that could affect the fluctuation between rankings.”
The difference in methodology helps explain why the same school can earn very different positions depending on the ranking system being used. For example, the Connecticut IB Academy ranked just 12th in the Niche rankings.
“I would say that I am a little surprised [by the U.S. News and World Report ranking] as I know Staples has been higher in the rankings in the past,” Elena Nasar ’27 said, “however I think that it is still very impressive to be ranked sixth in state because all the schools that are above us are very successful in academics and sports as well.”
