Best High Schools in St. Louis Area, According to New Ranking

Everyone knows that St. Louisans love to ask where you went to high school.

Well, now there’s a new list to pair with your high school questions.

Founded in 2002, the Pittsburgh-based website, Niche, has served as a leader in school rankings from the elementary to college level. With over 92,743 public schools, 30,112 private schools, and 11,820 school districts listed, Niche creates national, state and local rankings that cover academics, athletics, diversity, size and more. It uses surveys from students, along with data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. For more information on the methodology, visit.

Niche’s 9th annual ranking for 2023 came out on September 27 — and St. Louisans will have plenty to talk about.

Nationally, Missouri had two of the top 20 school districts — both from the St. Louis area, with Clayton ranked 13th nationally and Ladue ranked 15th.

Statewide, St. Louis also had nine of the top 10 public high schools, including Ladue Horton Watkins, Clayton, Lafayette, Parkway West, Marquette, Parkway Central, Kirkwood, Metro and Rockwood Summit High.

Here is a look at the top-placed schools and school districts in the St. Louis area:

Best St. Louis-area school districts:
1) School District of Clayton
2) Ladue School District
3) Kirkwood School District
4) Rockwood R-VI School District
5) Brentwood School District
6) Parkway School District
7) Francis Howell School District
8) Pattonville R-3 School District
9) Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District
10) Webster Groves School District

Best St. Louis-area public high schools:
1) Ladue Horton Watkins High School
2) Clayton High School
3) Lafayette High School
4) Parkway West High School
5) Marquette High School
6) Parkway Central High School
7) Kirkwood Senior High School
8) Metro High School
9) O’Fallon High School
10) Rockwood Summit Senior High School

Best St. Louis-area private schools:
1) John Burroughs School
2) Thomas Jefferson School
3) MICDS Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School
4) Saint Louis Priory School
5) St. Louis University High School
6) Whitfield School
7) Visitation Academy
8) Chaminade College Preparatory School
9) Crossroads College Preparatory School
10) Principia School

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