U.S. News Releases 2025-2026 Best High Schools Rankings

August 19, 2025 3

Nearly 18,000 public high schools are ranked, featuring a mix of charter and traditional schools.

A look at the 2025-2026 Best High Schools rankings released today – which ranks nearly 18,000 out of more than 24,000 reviewed public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia – shows notable movement among schools, especially at the top.

BASIS Tucson North in Arizona jumped from No. 33 to claim the top spot. There were six other new entrants to the top 10 this year: Central Magnet School in Tennessee, The Davidson Academy of Nevada, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science in New Mexico, Haas Hall Bentonville in Arkansas and Aiken Scholars Academy in South Carolina. Three of these rose at least 14 spots in the rankings and one – Davidson Academy – was previously unranked.

Previously ranked as the No. 1 school, BASIS Peoria in Arizona dropped to No. 66 this year. All of the top 20 schools this year have either selective enrollment – with requirements often including a minimum GPA, teacher recommendations and an entrance exam – or a lottery system.

A Look at the Methodology

While these shifts may seem significant, there were only slight changes to the top schools’ overall scores, which are based on the following six factors:

College readiness, based on the proportion of 12th-grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam (30% of ranking).
State assessment proficiency, based on aggregated scores on math, science and reading state assessments that students may be required to pass for graduation (20%).
State assessment performance, based on whether performance on math, science and reading state assessments exceeded expectations given the school’s proportion of underserved students (20%).
Underserved student performance, based on how Black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state (10%).
College curriculum breadth, based on proportions of 12th-grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas (10%).
Graduation rate, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2019-2020 and graduated four years later (10%).

Using this methodology, schools earned an overall percentile score between 0 and 100 at two decimal places. Scores below the 25th percentile are listed with a ranking range rather than a numerical rank. Each percentile includes 179 schools, so small changes due to any factor can result in big moves within the rankings, according to the U.S. News data team.

All of the data is collected from third-party sources. U.S. News receives AP and IB data directly from the College Board and International Baccalaureate, respectively, when applicable. The state assessment data and graduation rates are from each state, and other data comes from the U.S. Department of Education Common Core of Data.

Maine once again did not allow use of its schools’ AP data. However, unlike past years, Oklahoma granted U.S. News permission to use its AP data for this edition, which led to rank improvements of many schools within the state.

Top Nontraditional Schools

Looking at all ranked public schools, 11.6% of high schools were charters.

Five of the top 20 ranked high schools are classified as charter, including the top two, and two are part of BASIS Charter Schools Inc., a network of charter schools in Arizona. In the top 5% of the rankings, 18.2% of schools are charter.

Charter schools are independently operated public schools, meaning they are exempt from some state and local regulations. They may have an application process or lottery system for enrollment. The charter school environment varies regionally, as some states have no charter schools.

Another category is Best High Schools for STEM, in which rankings are based on student participation in college-level math and science courses and scores on AP exams in STEM subjects for 2023 graduates. To be eligible for this category, schools must be in the top 2,000 of the overall national rankings.

High Technology High School in New Jersey retained the No. 1 spot. Two schools – BASIS Tucson North and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology – made the overall top 10 and the top 10 in the STEM rankings.

Demographic Breakdown of Ranked High Schools

The number of high-ranking schools varies per state. Eleven high schools each in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas are in the top 100, the most of all states. New Jersey is next with nine schools in the top 100.

Massachusetts once again took the lead for the state with the largest proportion of schools in the top 25% of the Best High Schools rankings. Forty-three percent of its eligible schools are in the top quarter of the national rankings, followed by Connecticut with 40.9% and New Jersey at 40.4%. Nine other states had at least 30% of their high schools in the top 25%.

As for metropolitan areas, San Jose, California, once again tops the list with the largest proportion of schools in the top quarter of overall rankings. This metro area, which also includes Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, had 59.3%, or 35 out of its 59 ranked high schools, in the top 25%. Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy was the highest-ranked school, No. 64 nationally, in the metro area.

The New York City metro area – which also includes schools in surrounding New York counties and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania – had the most ranked schools of all metro areas: 1,008. Nearly 41% of this metro area’s schools are in the top 25% of the national rankings.

Schools serving large proportions of low-income children were underrepresented in the top quarter. “Mid-high poverty” schools, defined as schools where 50-74% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, made up about 23% of total ranked schools and 12.4% of schools in the top quarter of the rankings. High-poverty schools – where 75% or more of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch – were about 19.6% of ranked schools and 10.6% of schools in the top quarter.

See the complete rankings of the Best High Schools.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/us-news-ranks-best-high-schools

Written by: Joshua Stuart

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