2017 Best High Schools in DC / MD / VA

The Lotus Prep rankings are the most highly regarded rankings of the top academic high schools in the Washington DC metro area (including Northern Virginia and Maryland). Schools were ranked solely on the basis of objective academic measures. Learn more about methodology below.

Methodology: ranking the best high schools

Academically, what are the top high schools in Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia? These rankings are a rigorous answer to that question, based solely on objective academic measures.

Also answered are common questions about high schools. Which schools send the highest percentage of their students to top colleges? Which schools have the most National Merit semi-finalists? Which schools have the highest average SAT scores?

Highlights of the rankings:

• 2 public high schools, Thomas Jefferson (tuition: $0) and Montgomery Blair (tuition: $0), outranked every private high school in the DC metro area.
• Otherwise, private high schools dominate the rankings.
• 1 DC public high school made the list. It was #22 – the School Without Walls, a magnet high school.

Factors

The magnet population of each magnet high school was calculated separately from the mainstream population, if any.

3 factors were weighted equally:

1. Average SAT (math and critical reading)
2. Average number of Presidential Scholar candidates
3. Average number of National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists

For many high schools, we also reported the average number of students who went on to attend 15 top colleges. This number was not included for ranking purposes. The schools included were Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Each criterion was normalized to make it comparable to the other criteria. The Min-Max method was used to create raw scores:

x^t – min_c(x^t0) / (max_c(x^t0 – min_c(x^t0)).

High schools were ranked by raw score.

Data sources

¹ SAT Average. Calculated by adding average Math and average Critical Reading scores. Scores for all public high schools, all magnet high schools, National Cathedral School (NCS), Stone Ridge School, Gonzaga, St. Anselm’s, Washington International School, Holton-Arms, and Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School were obtained from the schools’ websites. Maret School scores were obtained from their 2015-16 Curriculum Guide. Scores for Sidwell, Emerson, Georgetown Day, and Georgetown Visitation were obtained from the Washington Examiner. Scores for other private high schools were obtained via private communication with school staff.

² National Merit Scholarship Semi-finalists. Calculated by averaging the percentage of National Merit Semi-finalists from 2006-2015.

³ Presidential Scholar Candidates. Calculated by averaging the percentage of Presidential Scholar Candidates from 2006-2015.

⁴ Number attending 15 Top Colleges. This is an average of the percentage of students from each high school who went on to attend 15 top schools from 2004 to 2014. The schools included were Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. The methods of obtaining this information were inspired by three different studies and included collecting the high schools’ self-reports and viewbooks from the 15 colleges. Education researcher Sam Tuo collected these data from 2004 to 2014.