Best High Schools in Meriden, CT

Meriden, Connecticut is home to three public high schools — Francis T. Maloney High School, Orville H. Platt High School, and H. C. Wilcox Technical High School — which together serve 3,235 students in grades 9–12. The two largest schools, Maloney and Platt, belong to the Meriden School District, while Wilcox is part of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System. Families in the area will find meaningful differences among these schools in academics, graduation rates, attendance, and the level of economic need among students.

Maloney stands out as the strongest academic performer of the three. It holds the highest SchoolDigger ranking in the group, posted the best SAT math proficiency (15.9%) and the only reported 2025–2026 ELA proficiency score (43.8%). Wilcox, by contrast, leads on measures of student success beyond standardized testing: it has the highest graduation rate (96.7% vs. 89.1% at Maloney and 89.8% at Platt), the lowest chronic absenteeism (13.6% vs. 29.2% and 27.3%), and the lowest student-teacher ratio at 11.7. Platt serves the highest-need population, with 80.86% of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, and it also has the largest student-teacher ratio at 17.3. Wilcox has the lowest poverty rate of the three at 45.55%.

A major concern across all three schools is math proficiency. In 2025–2026, even the best math score in Meriden — Maloney's 15.9% — was less than half the state average of 31.3%. Chronic absenteeism is also a serious issue at Maloney and Platt, with rates of 29.2% and 27.3% respectively, while Wilcox sits well below the state average at 13.6%. One key takeaway is that high graduation and attendance at Wilcox do not translate into high test scores, and data gaps — such as missing ELA scores for Wilcox and Platt — make full comparisons difficult. Overall, Maloney is the academic leader, Wilcox excels at keeping students on track to graduate, and Platt faces the greatest combination of economic need and academic challenge.