Where the data comes from
- U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools: national and state ranks. The current edition is 2026-27.
- NCES Common Core of Data: school identifiers, enrollment, student-teacher ratio and demographics.
- Urban Institute Education Data API: the economically disadvantaged share of students.
- US Census American Community Survey: county-level community context.
How to read a rank
U.S. News publishes exact ranks for the top of its list and ranges below that. A range such as #13,460–17,945 is a band, not a position: every school in it shares the band.
The ranked list grew from about 13,400 schools to about 17,900 in 2025, so HighSchoolTrends compares a school’s position within each edition rather than raw rank numbers across editions.
National and state ranks come from the 2026-27 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools edition. HighSchoolTrends adds each school's rank history across up to 14 editions, and enrollment and demographic context from the NCES Common Core of Data.