Fairfield County municipalities occupied more than half of the top rankings in the 2020 list of Connecticut’s best school districts released by Niche, an online school data resource.

Niche compiled its list with a number-crunch of federal and state data relating to test scores, graduation rates, SAT and ACT scores, and reviews from students and parents.

Within Connecticut, Fairfield County school districts occupied six of the top 10 rankings for the best school districts in the state, with Westport and New Canaan ranked first and second, Darien and Weston ranked fifth and sixth, and Wilton and Fairfield ranked eights and ninth. Among the school districts receiving numerical rankings, Shelton was the lowest ranked Fairfield County entity with an 84th place finish

In Niche’s category of the most diverse school districts, five Fairfield County localities were in the top 10: Danbury (second place), Stamford (fourth place), Norwalk (fifth place), Stratford (eighth place) and Bridgeport (ninth place). New Canaan and Westport placed first and second in the category for the best place to teach in Connecticut, while New Canaan was ranked highest as the safest school district in the state and Darien and New Canaan ranked second and third as the best school district for athletes.

For Niche’s overall ranking of Connecticut’s best schools, which encompassed public and private schools covering both K-12 and 9-12 for its analysis, only three Fairfield County institutions cracked the top 10: two Greenwich-based private schools, Greenwich Academy and Brunswick School, placed sixth and eighth while Westport’s Green Farms Academy, a private school, scored the 10th place spot.