Haverford High School students heading into AP biology or calculus this fall have a new data point backing their school's science and math programs: the school ranked 297th nationally for STEM in the 2026-27 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, released Aug. 18.
The STEM ranking places Haverford High in the top 500 schools nationwide, a subset U.S. News carved from the roughly 2,000 highest-performing schools based on student participation and scores on science and math AP exams. The school also ranked 33rd in Pennsylvania and 926th nationally overall.
The rankings drew primarily on 2023-24 school year data. That year, half of Haverford High seniors had taken at least one AP course, the school posted a 96 percent graduation rate and students scored well above average on Pennsylvania's Keystone Exams, according to Patch's Haverford edition.
For comparison, neighboring Radnor High School ranked 97th nationally on the same STEM list. Radnor's AP participation rate is 72 percent, according to the U.S. News Pennsylvania rankings page, compared with Haverford's 50 percent.
How the STEM ranking works
The STEM sub-ranking is separate from the overall Best High Schools list. RTI International, the research firm that collected and analyzed data for U.S. News, evaluated nearly 18,000 public high schools using six factors: state assessment proficiency, state assessment performance, underserved student performance, graduation rate, college readiness and college curriculum breadth. From that pool, U.S. News assessed the top 2,000 schools specifically on science and math AP participation and performance, then ranked the top 500.
That means Haverford High outperformed roughly 17,500 schools to make the STEM list.
Dr. LaMont Jones, U.S. News managing editor for education, said in a statement that the rankings aim to give families the data and transparency they need to make the best educational choices.
What's ahead for families
The Haverford Township School District's first day of school is Monday, Aug. 24. The school board has an action meeting scheduled for Aug. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Oakmont Administration Building, 50 E. Eagle Road, Havertown.
