Top 50 MD High Schools For 2022: U.S. News

MARYLAND — The best school in the state is again Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, according to a new national ranking by U.S. News and World Report. Montgomery County Public Schools has 17 in the top 50 on the list.

This year’s look at the best high schools in the U.S. evaluated more than 17,800 schools nationwide.

The 2022 ranking of best high schools is intended to show how well the nation’s public schools serve all students, regardless of achievement level, by teaching them basic skills and preparing them for college-level work, according to a news release from U.S. News.

Families can also use the rankings to see how schools compare at the national, state and local levels on factors such as graduation rates and college readiness.

These are the top 50 Maryland schools, according to U.S. News:

1. Walt Whitman High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
2. Thomas S. Wootton High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
3. Eastern Technical High School, Baltimore County Public Schools
4. Poolesville High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
5. Winston Churchill High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
6. Western School of Technology and Env. Science, Baltimore County Public Schools
7. River Hill High School, Howard County Public Schools
8. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
9. Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
10. Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, Washington County Public Schools
11. Urbana High School, Frederick County Public Schools
12. Marriotts Ridge High School, Howard County Public Schools
13. George W. Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Baltimore County Public Schools
14. Liberty High School, Carroll County Public Schools
15. Walter Johnson High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
16. Centennial High School, Howard County Public Schools
17. Baltimore City College, Baltimore City Public Schools
18. Northwest High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
19. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore City Public Schools
20. Hereford High School, Baltimore County Public Schools
21. Glenelg High School, Howard County Public Schools
22. Century High School, Carroll County Public Schools
23. South River High School, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
24. Chesapeake Science Point, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
25. Quince Orchard High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
26. St. Michaels Middle/High School, Talbot County Public Schools
27. Towson High Law and Public Policy, Towson
28. Damascus High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
29. Severna Park High School, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
30. Atholton High School, Howard County Public Schools
31. Oakdale High School, Frederick County Public Schools
32. Huntingtown High School, Calvert County Public Schools
33. Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore City Public Schools
34. Montgomery Blair High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
35. James Hubert Blake High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
36. Broadneck High School, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
37. Paint Branch High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
38. Linganore High School, Frederick County Public Schools
39. Dulaney High School, Baltimore County Public Schools
40. Mount Hebron High School, Howard County Public Schools
41. Snow Hill High School, Worcester County Public Schools
42. Wheaton High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
43. Sherwood High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
44. Manchester Valley High School, Carroll County Public Schools
45. Westminster High School, Carroll County Public Schools
46. Middletown High School, Frederick County Public Schools
47. Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Prince George's County Public Schools
48. Northern High School, Calvert County Public Schools
49. Rockville High School, Montgomery County Public Schools
50. Clarksburg High School, Montgomery County Public Schools

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, was ranked No. 1 in the nation, as well as among magnet schools.

Here are the top 10 schools in this year’s national Best High Schools ranking:

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology - Alexandria, Virginia
2. Academic Magnet High School - North Charleston, South Carolina
3. Signature School - Evansville, Indiana
4. School for Advanced Studies - Miami, Florida
5. Payton College Preparatory High School - Chicago, Illinois
6. The Davidson Academy of Nevada - Reno, Nevada
7. Central Magnet School - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
8. The School for the Talented and Gifted - Dallas, Texas
9. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology - Lawrenceville, Georgia
10. Julia R. Masterman Secondary School - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This year’s schools were ranked on six measures: college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment performance, state assessment proficiency, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance and graduation rates.

The data used in this year’s ranking is from the 2019-20 academic school year. U.S. News adjusted its calculation of these measures to account for the impact COVID-19 had on schools in the 2019-20 school year.

Since most states closed schools for in-person instruction starting in March 2020 — typically just before most states conduct assessments — the U.S. Department of Education granted waivers allowing all states to forgo state testing for the 2019-20 school year.

To account for this, U.S. News relied on past assessment data from the three prior ranking years. Researchers also incorporated state science assessment data from the 2018-19 school year.

Read more about the Best High Schools methodology.

In addition to the national rankings, U.S. News also published rankings at the state, metro area and school district levels. Only metro areas and school districts with three or more high schools were included in these subrankings.

Signature School in Indiana is at the top of the list for charter schools, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia is the No. 1 magnet school. The Davidson Academy of Nevada is the top STEM school.