Chicago-area schools make list of top 100 high schools in U.S. in new ranking

Several high schools from the Chicago area ranked among the top 100 in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s latest list.

The publication released its 2026-2027 Best High Schools Rankings Tuesday, naming nearly 18,000 public high schools, with a mix of charter and traditional schools.

Among the top 100 on the new list were five from the Chicago area.

The highest-ranking Illinois school was Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, which came in at No. 30 on the list. It was followed by two other Chicago schools, Payton College Prep at No. 54 and Lane Tech High School at No. 80.

The only suburban school to make the top 100 was Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, which made the list at No. 88.

Jones College Prep in Chicago took the final spot, coming in at No. 99 on the list.

Several other Chicago-area schools made the full list.

The ranking looked at more than 27,000 schools in total, according to U.S. News & World Report. Each school was ranked based on six factors: college readiness, state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rate. Each factor carried a different weight in a school’s overall performance, with college readiness – which is measured by the proportion of 12th-grade students who earned a qualifying score on Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams — accounting for 30 percent of the overall score.

Central Magnet School in Tennessee claimed the No. 1 spot on the ranking.

The highest ranking school was Evansville, Indiana’s Signature School, which came in at No. 2.

Last year’s top-ranked school. BASIS Tucson North in Arizona, dropped to No. 58 this year.