New Ranking Of Maryland's Public High Schools Released By U.S. News

Twenty-five public high schools in Maryland earned the highest spots in the state in U.S. News & World Report's 2026-2027 Best High Schools.

U.S. News evaluated about 27,000 eligible public high schools nationwide and ranked nearly 18,000 of them.

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Here are the top 25 high schools in Maryland, along with their national rankings:

1. Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore - No. 46 nationally
2. Poolesville High School, Poolesville - No. 135 nationally
3. Winston Churchill High School, Potomac - No. 172 nationally
4. Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda - No. 188 nationally
5. Thomas S. Wootton High School, Rockville - No. 259 nationally
6. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore - No. 279 nationally
7. Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville -No. 291 nationally
8. Western School of Technology, Baltimore - No. 292 nationally
9. Severna Park High School, Severna Park -No. 381 nationally
10. George W. Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Towson -No. 446 nationally
11. River Hill High School, Clarksville - No. 446 nationally
12. Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville - No. 469 nationally
13. Centennial High School, Ellicott City - No. 566 nationally
14. Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda - No. 579 nationally
15. Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore - No. 610 nationally
16. Chesapeake Science Point, Hanover - No. 658 nationally
17. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Bethesda - No. 681 nationally
18. Baltimore City College, Baltimore - No. 715 nationally
19. Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, Hagerstown - No. 739 nationally
20. Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Springs - No. 748 nationally
21. South River High School, Edgewater - No. 758 nationally
22. College Park Academy, Riverdale - No. 795 nationally
23. Urbana High School, Ijamsville - No. 998 nationally
24. Crofton High School, Gambrills - No. 1,051 nationally
25. Hereford High School, Parkton - No. 1,075 nationally

The rankings are based on six performance measures, including student achievement on state-required assessments, graduation rates and college readiness.

U.S. News also considers how well schools serve underserved students, participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, curriculum breadth and overall student outcomes.

The rankings use data from the 2023-2024 school year and were produced with research firm RTI International.

Massachusetts had the largest share of high schools ranked in the top 25 percent nationally, at 47 percent, followed by New Jersey at 44 percent and Maryland at 43 percent.

Among metropolitan areas with a significant number of ranked schools, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, had the largest share in the national top quarter, at 60 percent. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, followed at 59 percent, and Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wisconsin, at 56 percent.

Central Magnet School in Tennessee topped the national ranking, followed by Signature School in Indiana and Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Pennsylvania.

Signature School also ranked first among charter schools. High Technology High School in New Jersey ranked first among STEM high schools.

The full rankings are available at U.S. News & World Report.