A breakdown by state of the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings shows that Massachusetts is once again the leading performer. This state-by-state performance comparison is solely based on which states have the largest proportion of their high schools in the top 25% of the 2024 Best High Schools rankings.
This year, 43.9%, or nearly half, of Massachusetts' eligible high schools were in the top 25% of the rankings. Connecticut came in second with 42.9% of its schools in the top 25%, New Jersey in third with 42.1%, Maryland in fourth with 39% and Florida in fifth place with 37.4%.
The top-ranked U.S. public schools in the 2024 Best High Schools rankings are those whose students earned outstanding scores in math, reading and science state assessments; took and earned a qualifying score in an array of college-level exams; and graduated in high proportions. U.S. News ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools using a comprehensive formula. The six ranking factors and their weights are explained in the rankings methodology.
State rankings are calculated based on the proportion of each state's schools in the top 25% of the 2024 Best High Schools rankings. That level of achievement is the most valid indicator of the relative performance of a state's high schools compared with other states. This is because a relatively high percentage of a state's high schools in the top 25% demonstrates that those high schools have performed at the highest levels compared with other U.S. schools.
The results vary greatly for the percentages of states' high schools in the top 25% of the rankings. Only 13 states had 30% or more of their schools in the top 25%. Twenty-one states had 25% or more of their high schools in the top 25%. However, 19 states had 20% or fewer of their high schools in the top 25%, and eight states had fewer than 10% of their high schools in the top 25%.
The two states at the bottom of the ranking – Maine and Oklahoma – were the only states that did not give U.S. News permission to use their schools' Advanced Placement data in the rankings. Less than 5% of the high schools in those two states finished in the top 25% of the rankings.
