Illinois' Best School Districts: 2020 Rankings

ILLINOIS —Glenbrook High Schools District 225 is the top-ranked school in Illinois, according to new rankings released Monday by Niche. The company gave the district an overall grade of A+. Two Illinois schools — Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora and Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago — also made the national public school rankings, coming in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Here are the 50 best school districts in Illinois, according to Niche, and their rankings:

1. Glenbrook High Schools District 225
2. Community High School District No. 128, Vernon Hills
3. New Trier Township High School District No. 203, Northfield
4. Township High School District No. 113, Highland Park
5. Hinsdale Township High School District No. 86
6. Niles Township Community High School District No. 219
7. Naperville Community Unit School District No. 203
8. Barrington Community Unit School District No. 220
9. Indian Prairie Community Unit School District No. 204
10. Township High School District No. 214, Arlington Heights
11. Township High School District No. 211
12. Elmhurst School District No. 205
13. Community High School District No. 155, Crystal Lake
14. Community Unit School District No. 200, Wheaton
15. Lincoln Way Community High School District No. 210
16. Community High School District No. 99, Downers Grove
17. Grayslake Community High School District No. 127
18. Maine Township High School District No. 2017
19. Consolidated High School District No. 230
20. Glenbard Township High School District No. 87
21. Geneva Community Unit School District No. 304
22. Dunlap Community Unit School District No. 323, Peoria
23. Lake Zurich Community Unit School District No. 95
24. Community High School District No. 117
25. St. Charles Community Unit School District No. 303
26. Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District No. 3
27. Lisle Community Unit School District No. 202
28. Huntley Community School District No. 158
29. Batavia Public School District 101
30. Edwardsville Community Unit School District No. 7
31. Community Unit School District No. 201
32. DuPage High School District No. 88, Addison
33. Byron Community Unit School District No. 226
34. Maroa Forsyth Community Unit School District No. 2
35. Monticello Community Unit School District No. 25
36. McLean County Unified School District No. 5
37. Leyden Community High School District No. 212
38. Morton Community Unit School District No. 709
39. Ball Chatham Community Unit School District No. 5
40. Teutopolis Community Unit No. 50
41. Tremont Community Unit School District No. 702
42. Community Unit School District No. 308, Oswego
43. River Edge Community Unit School District No. 210
44. Tri-Valley Community Unit School District No. 3, Downs, Illinois
45. Rochester Community Unit School District No. 3-A
46. Pecatonica Community Unit School District No. 321
47. Central Community Unit School District No. 301
48. Coal City Community Unit School District No. 1
49. Mascoutah Community Unit School District. No. 19
50. Dieterich Community Unit School District No. 30

These are the top 10 public schools in the Prairie State, according to Niche:

1. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora
2. Walter Payton College Prep, Chicago
3. Northside College Preparatory High School, Chicago
4. Adlai Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire
5. Whitney M. Young Magnet School, Chicago
6. Lake Forest Academy
7. Hinsdale Central High School
8. Jones College Pre High School, Chicago
9. Glenbrook South High School
10. University of Illinois High School, Urbana
11. Glenbrook North High School

Here are the top 10 private schools in Illinois:

1. University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Chicago
2. Lake Forest Academy
3. North Shore Country Day School, Winnetka
4. Latin School of Chicago
5. Francis W. Parker School, Chicago
6. Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
7. St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, Chicago
8. Roycemore School, Evanston
9. British International School of Chicago
10. Rochelle Zell Jewish High School, Deerfield

Niche looked at more than 94,000 public schools, 4,100 private schools and nearly 11,000 school districts across the country. The rankings are meant to help parents and students find schools that best fit their needs.

“Unlike traditional school rankings, which rely almost exclusively on test scores and academic performance, Niche’s rankings provide a real-life view of what it’s like to attend a given school,” the company said in a news release.

Comments from current students, alumni, and parents are included in the analysis, as well as observations about things like campus life, extracurricular activities, sports options, diversity, and programs for gifted and special needs students.

“Parents and students need more than test-score data,” Luke Skurman, CEO at Niche, said in the news release. “They need to understand what it’s really like to attend a school before they start the application or registration process.”

For the first time, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, were ranked the top private and public high schools, respectively, in the nation.

2020 top public high schools:

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, Virginia
2. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Illinois
3. Walter Payton College Prep, Illinois
4. Stuyvesant High School, New York
5. Bergen County Academies, New Jersey

2020 top private high schools

1. Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire
2. St. Mark’s School of Texas
3. Phillips Academy, Massachusetts
4. The College Preparatory School, California
5. Trinity School

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.