The headline
City-level rankings of US public schools differ meaningfully from county-level rankings. Cities concentrate both the highest and lowest performing schools within a single jurisdiction, and the average across a city's schools can mask wide internal variation.
The cities that rank highest on average public school performance tend to be smaller wealthy suburbs of larger metros (Bellevue WA, Plano TX, Naperville IL, Newton MA, McLean VA) rather than the metro core cities themselves.
The two definitions of "best"
This report ranks cities on two distinct measures:
- Average proficiency: the mean state-assessment proficiency across all public schools in the city. Favors wealthy, homogeneous suburbs.
- Best top-quartile share: the percentage of a city's public schools that rank in their state's top quartile on proficiency. Favors cities with strong magnet systems where some schools dramatically outperform.
The two measures produce different leaderboards. Both are published in the table below.
What the underlying numbers say
The strongest predictor of city-level average school performance is the percentage of adults in the city with a bachelor's degree or higher, slightly stronger than median household income. Cities with high educational attainment and moderate income often outperform cities with high income and lower attainment.
How parents should use city rankings
City-level rankings answer a different question than school-level rankings. A family with school-age children considering where to buy a home benefits from knowing both. How strong is the typical school in this city, and how strong is the specific school they would attend.
Methodology
City defined as the NCES-reported city of each public school, normalized to handle variants like "ST." vs "Saint". Average proficiency computed across the school's most recent state-native assessment for math + reading/ELA. Education attainment from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates at the place-level.