News & Politics

A New Ranking of the DC Area’s Best Public and Private High Schools Has Been Released

A Virginia school tops the public list, and a DC school tops the private one

Thomas Jefferson High School students gather at Arlington National Cemetery. Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

Alexandria’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and DC’s Georgetown Day School are the best public and private high schools in the Washington area, respectively, according to a new ranking.

The analysis by Niche, a Pittsburgh-based company that compiles profiles on schools and colleges across the country, was based on government statistics as well as reviews from parents and students. Among other metrics, the rankings took into account standardized test scores, teacher pay, extracurricular offerings, and racial and economic diversity. 

Here’s a look at the top five local high schools as ranked by Niche’s 2022 Best Public High Schools and Best Private High Schools report, via WTOP.

Public Schools: 

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.

2. Poolesville High School, Montgomery County, Md

3. Walt Whitman High School, Montgomery County, Md

4. Winston Churchill High School, Montgomery County, Md

5. McLean High School, Fairfax County, Va.

Private Schools: 

1. Georgetown Day School, Washington, D.C.

2. Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C.

3. National Cathedral School, Washington, D.C.

4. Holton-Arms School, Bethesda, Md.

5. St. Albans School, Washington, D.C. 

 

See the full ranking for public high schools here, and the full ranking for private high schools here.

Senior Writer

Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.