Dilworth School vs Highland Park School

Highland Park School ranks #5 of 1014 schools in Utah, placing it in the top 1% statewide. Dilworth School earns a strong #42 of 1014 — a top-5% finish in its own right — but that 37-position gap between two schools 1.3 miles apart in Salt Lake City represents a meaningful difference in overall quality. Highland Park School's 9.6/10 overall rating edges Dilworth School's 8.8/10 by 0.8 points, a gap driven primarily by one dimension that separates good schools from exceptional ones.

That dimension is growth. Highland Park School scores 9.7/10 on academic growth versus Dilworth School's 8.2/10 — a 1.5-point gap that signals students at Highland Park are gaining ground faster relative to their starting points, regardless of where they begin. Academic proficiency scores are nearly identical: Highland Park School posts a 9.8/10 versus Dilworth School's 9.6/10, a difference of just 0.2 points. Both schools deliver high absolute achievement, but Highland Park School's growth advantage suggests its instructional model is accelerating student trajectories more aggressively year over year.

On demographics and classroom size, the two schools are closely matched. Dilworth School enrolls 445 students against Highland Park School's 502, with free and reduced-price lunch rates of 19% and 20% respectively — essentially identical economic profiles, meaning neither school serves a dramatically different population than the other. Student-teacher ratios are similarly tight: Dilworth School at 19.3:1 versus Highland Park School at 18.6:1, giving Highland Park a slight edge in classroom density that may contribute to its stronger growth outcomes.

One structural distinction worth noting: Dilworth School serves grades PK through 06, offering a pre-kindergarten entry point that Highland Park School — which begins at kindergarten — does not. Families seeking early childhood programming within the same building will find that option only at Dilworth School. Both schools cap at grade 06, so the upper transition timeline is identical. For families whose children are already kindergarten age or older, this pre-K difference is effectively moot, and Highland Park School's commanding state rank becomes the deciding factor.