Niche Ranks Best Schools In Denver Metro Area, Boulder

DENVER, CO — Cherry Creek High School is the top-ranked public school in Denver's metro area and Boulder, according to new rankings released Monday by Niche. The company gave Cherry Creek High an overall grade of A+ and also ranked it the best public school in the state.

Kent Denver School took the No. 1 spot in the private schools category.

Here are the best schools in the Denver area and Boulder:

Top public schools:

1. Cherry Creek High School, Cherry Creek School District
2. D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School, Jefferson County School District
3. Fairview High School, Boulder Valley School District
4. Grandview High School, Cherry Creek School District
5. Boulder High School, Boulder Valley School District
6. East High School, Denver Public Schools
7. Denver School of the Arts, Denver Public Schools
8. Peak to Peak Charter School, Boulder Valley School District
9. Rock Canyon School, Douglas County School District
10. DSST: Stapleton High School, Denver Public Schools

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Top private schools

1. Kent Denver School, Englewood
2. Colorado Academy, Denver
3. St. Mary's Academy, Englewood
4. Regis Jesuit High School, Aurora
5. Dawson School, Lafayette
6. Denver Jewish Day School, Denver
7. Valor Christian High School, Highlands Ranch
8. Watershed School, Boulder
9. Mullen High School, Denver
10. Holy Family High School, Broomfield

Niche looked at more than 94,000 public schools, 4,100 private schools and nearly 11,000 school districts across the country. The rankings are meant to help parents and students find schools that best fit their needs.

“Unlike traditional school rankings, which rely almost exclusively on test scores and academic performance, Niche’s rankings provide a real-life view of what it’s like to attend a given school,” the company said in a news release.

Comments from current students, alumni, and parents are included in the analysis, as well as observations about things like campus life, extracurricular activities, sports options, diversity, and programs for gifted and special needs students.

“Parents and students need more than test-score data,” Luke Skurman, CEO at Niche, said in the news release. “They need to understand what it’s really like to attend a school before they start the application or registration process.”

For the first time, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, were ranked the top private and public high schools, respectively, in the nation.

2020 top public high schools:

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology
2. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
3. Walter Payton College Prep
4. Stuyvesant High School
5. Bergen County Academies

2020 top private high schools

1. Phillips Exeter Academy
2. St. Mark’s School of Texas
3. Phillips Academy
4. The College Preparatory School
5. Trinity School

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.