News Summary
The U.S. News & World Report has released its rankings for the top public high schools, revealing no Hudson Valley schools in the top 100. Edgemont Junior-Senior High School ranked 10th in New York, while Fayetteville-Manlius High School led the Syracuse area at 804th nationally. Success Academy Charter emerged as a standout in New York City, achieving high pass rates on state exams. The analysis highlights educational performance trends and raises questions about academic success factors in various regions.
New York – The U.S. News & World Report has released its rankings for the nation’s top public high schools for the 2025-26 school year, and the results show that no high school from the Hudson Valley made the cut for the top 100 nationwide. This year’s ranking evaluated over 24,000 public high schools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Among the New York State rankings, Edgemont Junior-Senior High School achieved 10th place in the state and 115th overall, narrowly missing the top 100 list. In contrast, the Syracuse metro area saw Fayetteville-Manlius High School ranking the highest, positioned at 804th nationally and 82nd in New York.
The evaluations were based on multiple criteria, including mathematics, science, reading proficiency, graduation rates, and participation in advanced placement exams. In Broome County, the top three high schools recognized in the U.S. News rankings were Vestal, Maine-Endwell, and Windsor.
In New York City, Success Academy Charter emerged as one of the best public high schools, ranking 9th in the state. Its affiliated school, Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts – Manhattan, is notably accessible as it does not require students to pass the Specialized High School Admissions Test for admission. The top spot in the NYC area was claimed by Queens High School for the Sciences at York College.
The next three schools following Queens High School in the NYC rankings included The High School for Math, Science and Engineering at CCNY in second place and Stuyvesant High School in third. Additional schools rounding out the top ten in the city included Staten Island Technical High School, Bronx High School of Science, High School of American Studies at Lehman College, Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn Technical High School, and Townsend Harris High School, which completed the NYC top 10 rankings.
Success Academy reported impressive academic metrics, particularly among students in grades 3-7. The charter school demonstrated substantially higher pass rates on state exams compared to their public school counterparts. Specifically, Success Academy achieved a 92.5% pass rate for its students in the English Language Arts exam, and a remarkable 96.2% in mathematics. In contrast, public school students in grades 3-8 had a much lower proficiency, with only 56.3% meeting the standards in English and 56.9% in mathematics.
Success Academy operates a total of 59 schools and serves approximately 22,000 students, while the New York City Department of Education oversees around 1.1 million students in about 1,800 schools.
This comprehensive analysis by U.S. News underscores ongoing trends in educational performance across various regions and highlights specific achievements of schools both within New York and nationally. The notable absence of Hudson Valley schools in the top tier of this acclaimed list may prompt discussions among educators and policymakers about the factors contributing to academic success.
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Additional Resources
- Syracuse.com
- Wikipedia: High School
- Democrat & Chronicle
- Google Search: New York high school rankings
- Greater Long Island
- Google Scholar: US News high school rankings
- Post Star
- Encyclopedia Britannica: High School Education
- Fox 5 NY
- Google News: Best high schools in New York
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