The Best School Districts In America For 2018: Niche

As the 2017-18 school year kicks off, students heading to their first day of school and their parents can see how their particular school district stacks up against others in the state as Niche.com has released its annual rankings of best schools and school districts in the country.

The 2018 rankings released this month rank elementary, middle and high schools as well as school districts.

According to Niche, the best school district in the country is the Solon City School District in Solon, Ohio. With an overall Niche grade of A+, the district received a grade of A+ in academics, teachers, clubs and activities, college prep and health and safety. For diversity, Niche awarded the school district an A-.

To arrive at these rankings, Niche looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as test scores, college data and ratings collected from Niche users. The methodology for each category of rankings varied with some factors having a higher weight for certain categories over others.

For the best school districts, academics grade was given the highest priority in the methodology with 50 percent of the ranking being based on this data. Niche calculated academics grade by using data from the Department of Education as well as data that was self reported by Niche users. Teachers grade accounted for 15 percent of the ranking, while culture and diversity and parent/student surveys on overall experience both accounted for 10 percent of the ranking. The remaining 15 percent of the ranking was based on health and safety, resources and facilities, clubs and activities, and sports. (Click here for more information on how Niche calculates its rankings.)

Niche assigns a standardized score for each factor, which is then weighted before an overall score is calculated for each school district. The overall scores are again standardized, and some districts are disqualified from receiving a final letter grade if there isn’t enough data. School districts are then ranked numerically and assigned grades.

According to Niche, these are the best school districts in the country:

1. Solon City School District, Solon, Ohio (Overall Niche grade of A+)
2. Tredyffrin-Easttown School District, Wayne, Pennsylvania (Overall Niche grade of A+)
3. Radnor Township School District, Wayne, Pennsylvania (Overall Niche grade of A+)
4. School District of Clayton, Clayton, Missouri (Overall Niche grade of A+)
5. Dublin City School District, Dublin, Ohio (Overall Niche grade of A+)
6. South Texas Independent School District, Mercedes, Texas (Overall Niche grade of A+)
7. Eanes Independent School District, Austin, Texas (Overall Niche grade of A+)
8. Wellesley Public Schools, Wellesley, Massachusetts (Overall Niche grade of A+)
9. Indian Hill Exempted Village School District, Cincinnati, Ohio (Overall Niche grade of A+)
10. Lexington Public Schools, Lexington, Massachusetts (Overall Niche grade of A+)

Niche’s data comes for its K-12 school district rankings comes from various sources including the U.S. Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics and the Civil Rights Data Collection. The rankings also rely on data that is self-reported by Niche users and schools. (Click here to learn more about where Niche’s data comes from.)

What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.

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