All 25 Montgomery County public high schools earned spots on the 2025 Best High Schools list, published by U.S. News & World Report. Four were ranked among the top 500 nationally, and eight were ranked in the top 25 in Maryland. Walt Whitman High School earned the #2 spot in Maryland and 130th nationally.

Other MCPS schools ranked in Maryland’s top 25 include:

• Thomas S. Wootton High School (#191 in National Rankings; #3 in Maryland)
• Poolesville High School (#272 in National Rankings; #4 in Maryland)
• Winston Churchill High School (#402 in National Rankings; #8 in Maryland)
• Richard Montgomery High School (#640 in National Rankings; #11 in Maryland)
• Walter Johnson High School (#820 in National Rankings; #14 in Maryland)
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (#917 in National Rankings; #20 in Maryland)
• Northwest High School (#925 in National Rankings; #21 in Maryland)

U.S. News evaluates schools using six key measures:

• College readiness (based on 12th grade students who took and passed AP or IB exams)
• College curriculum breadth
• Math, science and reading proficiency (state test results)
• Math, science and reading performance (adjusted for the proportion of underserved students)
• Performance of Black, Hispanic and low-income students on state tests
• Graduation rate

The complete rankings are available here.