It’s pertinent to note the 2026-27 list of 13 Ivy League Day Schools — the most popular and affordable genre of schools — includes institutions from across the country. Our intent is that they will serve — and allow themselves to serve — as model schools in their areas of influence

Inventure Academy campus: Ivy League status retained. Inset: Nooraine Fazal

Last year responding to feedback that school education stakeholders and EW readers were experiencing a sense of deja vu with some schools routinely topping the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR, estb.2007) year after year, on the advice of Raymond Ravaglia, former Dean and Director of Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Studies and Founder of the Stanford Online High School, who is currently Director of US-based education research firm Launchpad Rankings LLC, your editors carved out a new super nova category of “cluster-ranked” schools.

Primary-secondaries routinely awarded very high scores under critical parameters of school education excellence including teacher welfare and development, faculty competence, academic reputation, co-curricular and sports education, were elevated to a new cluster-ranked Ivy league category, i.e, they are all awarded #1 India rank.

“Numerical scores suggest overly precise distinctions between schools that in practice offer similar high quality education experience, not justified by empirical data. When the quality of education provided by schools is too close to call, it’s advisable to cluster rank them and segregate them by star point rankings reflecting minor decimal point differences. This rankings innovation acknowledges that selecting suitable schools isn’t about fine-grained metrics but about understanding the overall quality, focus and educational environments that excellent schools provide,” explains Ravaglia.

In short, excellent schools “too close to call” are awarded #1 rank in the broad categories of day, boarding and international regardless of sub-category distinctions such as boys, girls, co-ed with an exception made in the case of the best sui generis day-cum-boarding schools which are also awarded Ivy League status.

However to encourage new entrants into this supernova category, decimal point stars are awarded to schools which in this writer’s opinion are of minimal importance. Nor is promotion to Ivy League status permanent. Some schools included in this category in 2025-26 have been reverted to their sub-category. In 2025-26, 12 day schools and five day-cum-boarding schools were included in the Day schools category. This year, the number is 13 and five respectively (see league table p. 44). The boarding and international schools elevated to Ivy League status were presented last month in Part-I of EWISR 2026-27.

The restructuring of the annual EWISR is welcomed by leaders of routinely top-ranked schools. “The initiative to group repeatedly top-ranked day schools hitherto separated by one or two points in previous EW league tables is equitable and refreshing. It’s a good idea to award regularly top-ranked schools a common #1 rank and introduce the star points system to identify their minor advantages. This is likely to satisfy Ivy League school leaders while continuing to stimulate them to strive to improve in areas where they are perceived to be relatively weak,” says Nooraine Fazal, co-founder, CEO and managing trustee of the new genre Inventure Academy, Bangalore (IA, estb.2005) which was awarded Ivy League status last year. This year as well, IA has retained its Ivy League status with five stars. It’s noteworthy that IA has been awarded the highest score under the parameter of leadership, attributable to Fazal’s excellent academic (Boston University) and career experience with the Reuters Group in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Hong Kong who returned to India in the new millennium to promote IA in collaboration with Prestige Properties Ltd, the blue-chip housing and offices construction major, which perhaps explains IA’s top score under the parameter of infrastructure.

RKKGPS principal Neera Singh (centre): all parameters improvement effort

Two hitherto continually top ranked day schools in their sub-categories — Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls Public School (RKKGPS), Jodhpur and City Montessori School, Lucknow (co-ed) — have debuted in the Day Schools Ivy League table this year, taking the total number to 13. Most of them are co-ed institutions. But the 2026-27 Ivy League Day schools league table also includes two all-girls schools (NASR School, Khairatabad, Hyderabad and Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls, Jodhpur) with Birla High, Moira Street, Kolkata being the sole all-boys school.

Neera Singh, an alumna of Rajasthan and SNDT, Mumbai universities who acquired 25 years of teaching experience in several schools countrywide prior to being appointed as principal of RKKGPS in 2008, is “absolutely delighted and humbled” that her school has been promoted to the Ivy League table of Day schools which includes Day schools of all sub-categories.

“In RKKGPS, all stakeholders including parents and students accord highest importance to the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings. Therefore, the great honour of promotion to the Ivy League category has thrilled all of us. From the time when we were modestly ranked among Girls Day schools several years ago, we resolved to make a determined effort to improve our outcomes under all parameters of school education excellence included in the annual EWISR. This effort proved fruitful with RKKGPS ranked #1 countrywide among Girls Day schools. Nevertheless we were not content to rest on our laurels because we strove for continuous improvement to maintain our top rank. Now the promotion to the Ivy League category has validated our improvement strategy. In particular, I am very pleased with our high scores under the core parameters of academic reputation, and related parameters of curriculum and pedagogy, individual attention to students and special needs education,” says Singh. Currently, RKKGPS has 1,800 girl students mentored by 168 teachers.

Likewise Geeta Kingdon, Director of the Co-ed Day City Montessori School, Lucknow (CMS, estb.1959) — the world’s largest single city school per Guiness World Records with 22 campuses and an aggregate enrolment of 66,000 students and 3,300 teachers — is “thrilled” that CMS is elevated to the elite Ivy League category. This celebrated school’s long-standing reputation for academic excellence aside, Kingdon is especially pleased that this year’s sample respondents have acknowledged CMS’ wide-ranging co-curricular and internationalism, and sports education record.

CMS director Geeta Kingdon (right): wide-ranging co-curricular calendar

“We have an extraordinarily wide-ranging and sustained co-curricular calendar at CMS. For decades and right through the year, we have student exchange programmes with schools abroad, host an annual convention of Chief Justices from 40-45 countries — ideated by my late father Dr. Jagdish Gandhi — stage model United Nations with participant schools from across the country as part of the school’s global citizenship education effort, maintain a strong music education programme, convene literary events and have active clubs and societies on every campus. Likewise every year, 400-500 CMS students compete in the annual CISCE sports and games competitions outside Lucknow and many get to SGFI (Sports and Games Federation of India) programmes from which young people are selected to represent India in the Asian and Commonwealth Games, etc. Perhaps, your sample respondents also bore in mind management and organisational problems of managing the world’s largest school when they decided to promote CMS to the Ivy League category,” says Kingdon.

It’s pertinent to note the 2026-27 list of 13 Ivy League Day Schools includes institutions from across the country. Our intent is that they will serve — and allow themselves to serve — as model schools in their areas of influence. If all day schools draw from their best practices and fashion themselves after them, the rising tide will lift all boats for the greater good of the world’s largest — and most short-changed — child population.