With its stark desert beauty, friendly, well-educated residents, expanding economy, and myriad opportunities for outdoor recreation, more and more Americans are migrating to Utah, and they’re bringing their children with them; the state’s public school enrollment exceeded 650K for the first time in 2017. Luckily for them, the Beehive State has plenty of excellent school districts to choose from.

Cache County School District is the state’s best public school system. Comprising 16 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, 4 high schools and 1 special school, Cache County leads the state in both language arts and math proficiencies, as well as earning the highest scores on the 2016 SAGE tests.

Utah’s #2 public school district is Park City School District, located in the mountain town of Park City, UT. Long recognized as one of the state’s best school districts, PCSD has achieved a 95% graduation rate, 10 points above the Utah average and in the top 1% in the U.S., overall.

Ranking #3 is Morgan County School District, a smaller district of two elementaries, one middle school and one high school. According to Niche.com, the district boasts a graduation rate of 92%.

At #4 is South Summit School District based in Kamas, UT. The district is growing fast and hopes to build a new high school. Located 42 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City, the town is known as the “Gateway to the Uintas.”

The fifth best school district in Utah is the Alpine School District , the largest school district in the state with 86 total schools and over 75,000 students enrolled.

Methodology

The following contributed to the ranking: student performance (math and reading test scores), dropout rates, school funding, and area poverty rates. Data was collected from a total of 9,577 school districts.

Did your district make the list?