19 Charlotte-area high schools ranked among best in the state. See the full list
Nineteen Charlotte-area high schools earned spots among the top 50 in North Carolina in the latest rankings from U.S. News and World Report, released Tuesday.
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It’s four more than last year, and several local schools significantly improved their places on this year’s list. Six schools in the Charlotte region placed among the top 20 high schools in the state, and three made the top 15.
The ranking only includes public schools — both traditional and charter.
Highland School of Technology in Gaston County maintained its spot atop Charlotte-area high schools, coming in at ninth best in North Carolina. It’s the only local school that cracked the state’s top 10.
Meanwhile, Ardrey Kell High School in south Charlotte leaped ahead nine spots from last year, landing at 13th best in the state. Providence High School, also in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, came right behind at 14th.
The top 10 public high schools in the Charlotte region (including Mecklenburg, Union, Gaston, Cabarrus, Lincoln, Stanly and Iredell counties) are:
A number of other area high schools also ranked in the top 50 in the state: Central Academy of Technology and Arts (No. 33), Community School of Davidson (No. 35), Discovery High School (No. 37), J.T. Williams Secondary Montessori (No. 38), Northwest School of the Arts (No. 42), William Amos Hough High School (No. 43), Bradford Preparatory School (No. 45), Cox Mill High School (No. 46), Levine Middle College High School (No. 48).
The Early College at Guilford, a high school in Greensboro, took the top spot in North Carolina in this year’s ranking. It offers a fast-paced, writing-intensive curriculum in partnership with Guilford College. Students take college-level courses with undergraduates in grades 11 and 12.
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Nationally, the school ranked 26th.
STEM Early College at N.C. A&T, another early college in Guilford County Schools, took second place in the state. The state’s third, fourth and fifth spots were claimed by Onslow Early College High School in Jacksonville, Wake NCSU Early College High School in Cary and Raleigh Charter High School, respectively.
U.S. News and World Report considers a few different factors when constructing its yearly ranking. Those include student achievement on state-required assessments, strong graduation rates and college readiness measures like participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.
“Every student deserves a pathway to success, and that journey often begins with selecting the right school,” LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News, said in a Tuesday news release. “The 2026-2027 Best High Schools rankings empower families with the valuable data and transparency they need to help make the best educational choices for them.”
Private schools are not included in U.S. News and World Report’s yearly ranking. However, Niche.com, a website that collects data on K-12 schools and colleges in the U.S., released its own 2026 list of exclusively private schools.
No North Carolina schools ranked among the top ten in the country, but three Charlotte schools made the state’s top ten list: Providence Day School (No. 3), Charlotte Latin School (No. 8) and Charlotte Country Day School (No. 9).
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