I’d take school ratings with a grain of salt period. Our high school regularly appears in the bottom third of most school ratings. It’s an enormous school and it’s got a lot of English language learners and a lot of low income kids. It doesn’t always serve them as well as it should, but the rating system is also rigged to make you look like you are failing when a kid who doesn’t yet speak English fluently can’t pass the Regents English test. It’s a terrific school for high achieving students. It offers over 20 APs and graduates from our high school regularly go to all the most selective school in the country (including service academies from time to time.) You have to dig deeper.