NCES CCD 2024-25 7 schools CT

Best-Resourced Schools in Darien, CT

Compiled from official source data by .

7 public K-12 schools in Darien from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
7
Schools
4,649
Students
69.9/100
Avg Resource Index
11.5:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Darien has more public-school enrollment than 52% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Darien's 7 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

5 of Darien's 7 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

One district, but meaningful resource variation

Darien's schools share one district authority while their average Resource Investment Index ranks at the 99th percentile among listed cities. Shared governance removes one source of policy variation, but it does not erase campus differences by grade span or enrollment. The 9-point gap between Royle Elementary School and Ox Ridge Elementary School measures the remaining local spread. Use the district-level picture for common budget context, then compare the school components to see whether staffing, counseling, gifted-program reporting, or attendance accounts for each campus's position.

City enrollment
Top 48%
School count
Top 65%
Resource Index average
99th percentile
Teacher staffing
92nd percentile

Darien High School accounts for 29.7% of all Darien public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Darien-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Darien school enrollment varies 4.0× across entities

Darien school enrollment ranges from 342 students (lowest) to 1,382 students (highest), a spread of 1,040 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Darien operates one school district — a single-district system

Darien's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Darien student-teacher ratio is 11.5:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Royle Elementary School 74
2. Tokeneke Elementary School 72
3. Hindley Elementary School 72
4. Middlesex Middle School 70
5. Darien High School 69
6. Holmes Elementary School 67
7. Ox Ridge Elementary School 65

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Darien

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Royle Elementary School 42.0/100
  2. 2 Holmes Elementary School 36.2/100
  3. 3 Middlesex Middle School 35.8/100
  4. 4 Tokeneke Elementary School 35.2/100
  5. 5 Darien High School 33.8/100

What do families ask about schools in Darien?

Which Darien school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Royle Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Darien schools in this federal-data comparison at 74/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Darien, CT? ▼

Darien has 7 public schools with a total enrollment of 4,649 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.5:1.

Other Cities in Connecticut

Bridgeport
44 schools
Hartford
44 schools
New Haven
42 schools
Waterbury
32 schools
Norwalk
23 schools
Stamford
23 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Connecticut →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.