PENNSYLVANIA - From Philadelphia's magnet programs to specialized academies in New Jersey and Delaware, U.S. News & World Report is offering families a fresh look at the top-performing classrooms in the region.
What we know:
Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Philadelphia earned the No. 3 spot out of 18,000 evaluated schools in the 2026-27 Best U.S. High School Rankings, followed by the only other Pennsylvania school to make the top 100: Downingtown STEM Academy in 19th place.
New Jersey had several schools make it into the top 100 for this year's list:
- High Technology High School in Lincroft: 28th place
- Edison Academy Magnet School in Edison: 40th place
- Union County Magnet School in Scotch Plain: 59th place
- Biotechnology High School in Freehold: 72nd place
- Woodbridge Academy Magnet School in Woodbridge: 75th place
- Bergen County Academies in Hackensack: 78th place
- Academy for Information Technology in Scotch Plains: 83rd place
- Bergen County Technical High School in Teterboro: 84th place
In Delaware, Charter School of Wilmington was the only high school to crack the top 100, coming in at No. 56 in national rankings.
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Big picture view:
Central Magnet School in Tennessee secured top spot in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of the top-performing high schools.
Signature School in Indiana, Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Pennsylvania, Davidson Academy in Nevada and School Without Walls High School in Washington, D.C., rounded out the top five.
Dig deeper:
For the 2026-2027 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News & World Report evaluated nearly 18,000 public high schools nationwide to determine how well they educate students from diverse social and economic backgrounds.
A school’s overall score is determined by summing its performance across six weighted indicators. College Readiness (30%), College Curriculum Breadth (10%), State Assessment Proficiency (20%), State Assessment Performance (20%), Underserved Student Performance (10%) and Graduation Rate (10%).
New York, Colorado, Vermont and Maine did not authorize the College Board to share AP data with U.S. News & World Report, which means the College Readiness and College Curriculum Breadth scores for these schools were calculated solely on participation and performance on IB exams.
The Source: Information from this article was sourced from the U.S. News & World Report.