2026-2027 Best High Schools Rankings: Nearly 18,000 Schools Ranked by US News
U.S. News & World Report has released its 2026-2027 Best High Schools rankings, one of the largest comparisons of public schools ever published. The project reviewed around 27,000 eligible public high schools across all 50 states, and nearly 18,000 of them received a ranking at the national, state or local level. For families choosing where to live or which school a teenager should attend, the list offers a huge amount of useful data in one place.
The National Top 10
The number one public high school in the country this year is Central Magnet School in Tennessee. It is followed by Signature School in Indiana and Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Pennsylvania. The Davidson Academy in Nevada is fourth, and School Without Walls High School in Washington, DC is fifth.
Sixth place goes to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, one of the most famous STEM schools in the country. The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Georgia is seventh, the School for the Talented and Gifted (TAG) in Texas is eighth, Nikola Tesla STEM High School in Washington state is ninth, and the Science Academy STEM Magnet in California completes the top ten. Many of the leading schools are magnet or selective-admission schools, which means students often need to apply or qualify to attend them.
How the Rankings Were Calculated
U.S. News judged schools on six main indicators. The most important are how well students perform on state-required tests in subjects such as reading and mathematics, and how many students graduate on time. College readiness also counts heavily: it is measured by how many students take Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams, and how well they score on them.
The rankings also look at how well a school serves underserved students, the breadth of the curriculum it offers, and overall student outcomes. The scores are based on data from the 2023-2024 school year, the most recent full year available. To carry out the work, U.S. News partnered with RTI International, a nonprofit research organization that helped apply the ranking methodology consistently to thousands of schools.
States and Metro Areas That Stood Out
Some states performed remarkably well as a group. Massachusetts leads the nation, with 47% of its ranked high schools landing in the top quarter of all schools nationally. New Jersey follows with 44%, and Maryland is close behind with 43%.
Among large metropolitan areas, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area of California leads, with 60% of its ranked schools in the national top 25%. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission in Texas is next at 59%, followed by Milwaukee-Waukesha in Wisconsin at 56%. These figures suggest that in some regions, strong public schools are not rare exceptions but a common feature of local education.
Charter and STEM Schools Shine
Charter schools performed far above their share of total schools, taking 23% of the places in the national top 100. The BASIS charter network in Arizona was especially successful: 12 of its campuses appear in the overall national top 100, and three of the country’s five best STEM high schools — BASIS Ahwatukee, BASIS Chandler and BASIS Scottsdale — belong to the network. On the separate charter ranking, Signature School of Indiana took first place, followed by BASIS Oro Valley and BASIS Goodyear.
For STEM education, the top spot went to High Technology High School in New Jersey, with Edison Academy Magnet School, also in New Jersey, in fourth place. California has the most STEM high schools overall with 96, followed by New Jersey with 50.
Why This Ranking Matters
For most teenagers, high school is where the road to college — and to a career — truly begins. U.S. News says the purpose of the rankings is to give families clear data and transparency when making that choice, rather than forcing them to rely on reputation or word of mouth alone. Alongside the national list, U.S. News publishes separate rankings for every state and for major metro areas, plus a demographic breakdown of all ranked schools. That means a family can zoom in from the national picture to the handful of schools near their own home, and compare those schools on the same measures. It is also a useful tool for parents who are thinking about moving house, since the quality of local public schools is one of the most common reasons families pick one neighborhood over another.
How Families Can Use the Rankings
- Start local. Look at the state and metro rankings first, because those are the schools your family can realistically reach.
- Read beyond the rank. Graduation rates and AP or IB results show whether a school prepares students for college, not just for tests.
- Check admission rules. Many top-ranked schools are magnet or charter schools with applications, lotteries or entrance requirements.
- Combine data with visits. A school tour and conversations with teachers and parents reveal the culture that numbers cannot capture.
The Bottom Line
The 2026-2027 rankings show that excellent public high schools exist in every part of the United States — from big-city magnets to charter networks in Arizona. With nearly 18,000 schools ranked, families now have a clear, data-based starting point for one of the most important decisions they will make for their children.
Source: PR Newswire — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-news-reveals-2026-2027-best-high-schools-rankings-302853368.html