The 40 Top-Rated Public High Schools in Philadelphia and the Suburbs

Many factors should go into choosing a school for your child. Here are the top performers in the city and suburbs when it comes to graduation rates, student performance, and other statistical measures.


top-rated public high schools

Masterman, one of the top-rated public high schools in Philadelphia / Photograph by Michael Stokes/Flickr

In the pandemic era, ranking high schools presents several challenges, with limited availability of data being the biggest one. For example, Pennsylvania stopped releasing schools’ average SAT scores — a significant aspect of our rankings in prior years — while New Jersey canceled statewide tests for both the 2019-’20 and 2020-’21 school years, forcing us to exclude Jersey schools from our analysis altogether. Acknowledging those limits, we nonetheless tried to maintain an unbiased approach in order to highlight schools in our area that are delivering a high level of education during tough times.

City Schools

Listed alphabetically

Academy at Palumbo

Bella Vista
Student enrollment: 1,118
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 76%
Student-teacher ratio: 23:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 69%/45%

Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush

Northeast Philly
Student enrollment: 635
Graduation percentage: 99%
College percentage: 77%
Student-teacher ratio: 22:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 58%/66%

Carver (Engineering & Science)

North Philly
Student enrollment: 781
Graduation percentage: 93%
College percentage: 74%
Student-teacher ratio: 26:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 89%/87%

Central

North Philly
Student enrollment: 2,381
Graduation percentage: 99%
College percentage: 83%
Student-teacher ratio: 24:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 98%/98%

Franklin Towne (charter)

Northeast Philly
Student enrollment: 1,261
Graduation percentage: 99%
College percentage: 72%
Student-teacher ratio: 18:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 82%/NA

Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP)

South Philly
Student enrollment: 255
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 79%
Student-teacher ratio: 21:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 69%/80%

MaST Community (charter)

Northeast Philly
Student enrollment: 499
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 84%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 79%/NA

Masterman

Spring Garden
Student enrollment: 461
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 92%
Student-teacher ratio: 23:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 100%/100%

Mastery Shoemaker Campus (charter)

West Philly
Student enrollment: 505
Graduation percentage: 94%
College percentage: 72%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 57%/67%

Multicultural Academy (charter)

North Philly
Student enrollment: 261
Graduation percentage: 94%
College percentage: 80%
Student-teacher ratio: 17:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 32%/NA

New Foundations (charter)

Northeast Philly
Student enrollment: 765
Graduation percentage: 93%
College percentage: 65%
Student-teacher ratio: 17:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 49%/59%

Parkway Center City

Center City
Student enrollment: 447
Graduation percentage: 100%
College percentage: 71%
Student-teacher ratio: 24:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 71%/NA

Philadelphia Academy (charter)

Northeast Philly
Student enrollment: 464
Graduation percentage: 92%
College percentage: 62%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 70%/65%

Philadelphia Performing Arts (charter)

Center City
Student enrollment: 617
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 87%
Student-teacher ratio: 16:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 43%/54%

Science Leadership Academy

Spring Garden
Student enrollment: 498
Graduation percentage: 100%
College percentage: 79%
Student-teacher ratio: 28:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 64%/NA

Suburban Schools

Listed alphabetically

best public schools

Central Bucks East, one of the best public schools in the area / Photograph by Jonathan Goldberg/KCBA Architects

Central Bucks East

Bucks
Student enrollment: 1,385
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 91%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 94%/NA

Central Bucks West

Bucks
Student enrollment: 1,507
Graduation percentage: 96%
College percentage: 85%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 95%/NA

Conestoga

Chester
Student enrollment: 2,335
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 98%
Student-teacher ratio: 16:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 92%/90%

Council Rock North

Bucks
Student enrollment: 1,622
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 89%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 93%/93%

Council Rock South

Bucks
Student enrollment: 1,995
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 87%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 89%/95%

Downingtown East

Chester
Student enrollment: 1,702
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 83%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 81%/81%

Downingtown STEM Academy

Chester
Student enrollment: 883
Graduation percentage: 100%
College percentage: 99%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 100%/NA

Garnet Valley

Delaware
Student enrollment: 1,546
Graduation percentage: 96%
College percentage: 89%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 85%/91%

Great Valley

Chester
Student enrollment: 1,403
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 92%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 89%/91%

Harriton

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,287
Graduation percentage: 99%
College percentage: 91%
Student-teacher ratio: 11:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 85%/92%

Lower Merion

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,628
Graduation percentage: 96%
College percentage: 90%
Student-teacher ratio: 12:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 87%/94%

Lower Moreland

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 826
Graduation percentage: 96%
College percentage: 88%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 83%/NA

Marple Newtown

Delaware
Student enrollment: 1,157
Graduation percentage: 96%
College percentage: 79%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 73%/93%

Methacton

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,584
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 87%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 82%/92%

New Hope-Solebury

Bucks
Student enrollment: 468
Graduation percentage: 95%
College percentage: 93%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 87%/91%

Penncrest

Delaware
Student enrollment: 1,218
Graduation percentage: 94%
College percentage: 88%
Student-teacher ratio: 12:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 67%/98%

Perkiomen Valley

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,768
Graduation percentage: 94%
College percentage: 81%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 80%/87%

Radnor

Delaware
Student enrollment: 1,165
Graduation percentage: 98%
College percentage: 87%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 90%/93%

Renaissance Academy (charter)

Chester
Student enrollment: 331
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 82%
Student-teacher ratio: 12:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 96%/90%

Spring-Ford

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 2,561
Graduation percentage: 95%
College percentage: 85%
Student-teacher ratio: 15:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 95%/98%

Unionville

Chester
Student enrollment: 1,351
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 88%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 94%/94%

Upper Dublin

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,320
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 92%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 73%/91%

Upper Merion

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,293
Graduation percentage: 94%
College percentage: 77%
Student-teacher ratio: 14:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 75%/93%

Wissahickon

Montgomery
Student enrollment: 1,467
Graduation percentage: 97%
College percentage: 86%
Student-teacher ratio: 13:1
Met or exceeded expectations for math/science: 83%/79%

*The schools here performed best in our separate rankings of Philadelphia district and charter schools (81 total) and schools in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties (76 total). For our calculations, we used the latest available data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, supplemented with data from the School District of Philadelphia; numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole. Our ranking includes an additional category for classroom teacher education level; for a full explanation of our methodology, see phillymag.com/schools2022.

Published as “High Schools Weathering the Storm” in the September 2022 issue of Philadelphia magazine.