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The 2026 Niche rankings of schools and school districts in America were announced today. Niche points out that their rankings take into account factors that other ranking services don’t consider. For example, they note their rankings factor in “real experiences from students, parents and educators.” For some, that may seem like arguing that Facebook is a better news source because it has a robust comment section, or this “Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee” on Amazon.com is a great t-shirt because it has 4.7 stars from 5,181 customer reviews.
Never mind that most of the reviews on the wolf t-shirt say things like:
“Last week I was watching a bootlegged directors cut of Roadhouse on my VCR, and I fast forwarded to the behind the scenes bonuses. I couldn’t help but notice that Swayze was donning this three wolf moon shirt when training for all the fight scenes. Get this, apparently he was even wearing the shirt during the actual filming because he refused to ever take it off. They allowed this to continue, and ended up using something called CGI to add less intimidating shirts in the movie. They said they didn’t want the shirt in the film because it would look like he was cheating in the fights scenes, and they didn’t want the shirt to steal the show.”
User-generated content and reviews from non-expert consumers are obviously truth, and they add depth to otherwise reductive rankings elsewhere that are largely based on standardized test scores and incomplete data from a clearinghouse.
Importantly, Niche also uses trusted sources for data, as their website notes: “Our rankings algorithm draws from a variety of trusted sources, including the U.S. Department of Education…” [Emphasis added]
And with that in mind…
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School ranked an impressive #12 in Massachusetts this year according to Niche.
The strong ranking was announced the same day that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the latest scores from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which would likely make it difficult to factor into the rankings for this year.
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Superintendent and Principal, Andrew Stephens, told the community last year:
“While I personally and professionally do not feel that rankings that have limited categories and push the comparison between districts come anywhere close to reflecting the arc of the educational experience for a student at LS over their 4 years here, I do understand that many people do pay attention to these types of reports.”
Stephens’ comments were in response to inaccurate data used in the Boston Magazine rankings, though they may prove to be helpful context as additional rankings trickle in during the always-pleasant school ranking season this year.