Radnor High School and Haverford High School both landed in the Philadelphia region's top 25 public high schools, according to the 2026-2027 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings released Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Radnor placed No. 8 in the metro area, according to Delco Today. That makes it the highest-ranked school in Delaware County. Haverford came in at No. 24, just one spot ahead of Garnet Valley.
The regional rankings put both schools in direct context with familiar suburban neighbors. Strath Haven in Wallingford-Swarthmore ranked No. 14 regionally, Springfield High claimed No. 23 and Garnet Valley rounded out the Delco contingent at No. 25. Lower Merion High School, a frequent comparison point for Radnor families, ranked No. 8 in Pennsylvania and No. 380 nationally, placing it between Radnor (No. 341 nationally) and Haverford (No. 926) in the national standings.
All five Delaware County schools that cracked the regional top 25 also finished inside the national top 1,000, out of roughly 27,000 public high schools evaluated and nearly 18,000 ranked.
As we reported on the STEM rankings Aug. 18, Haverford earned the No. 297 spot among STEM high schools nationally. Radnor ranked No. 97 for STEM.
What the data shows
The rankings used 2023-24 school year data, produced in partnership with research firm RTI International. At Radnor, 72 percent of seniors had taken at least one AP class and the graduation rate was 97 percent, according to Patch. At Haverford, 50 percent of seniors took an AP class with a 96 percent graduation rate. Both schools scored well above average on Pennsylvania's Keystone Exams.
U.S. News weighed six factors: college readiness (30 percent), state assessment proficiency (20 percent), state assessment performance (20 percent), college curriculum breadth (10 percent), underserved-student performance (10 percent) and graduation rate (10 percent).
Harry Feder, executive director of the nonprofit FairTest, has argued the methodology has limits. "By reducing lots of different school quality factors to a single number, all U.S. News rankings oversimplify academic quality," Feder wrote in a 2023 National Education Policy Center blog post cited in Patch's coverage of the rankings.
The bigger picture
Philadelphia's Julia R. Masterman Secondary School topped the region at No. 3 nationally, and Downingtown STEM Academy ranked No. 19 nationally. Five separate Delaware County districts placed a school in the top 25: Radnor Township, Wallingford-Swarthmore, Springfield, Haverford Township and Garnet Valley.
Radnor Township School District Superintendent Kenneth Batchelor and Haverford Township School District leadership have not issued public statements specifically addressing the regional rankings.
