Best School Districts in America 2026

The top 50 US public school districts ranked by average EDFacts proficiency rates (math + reading combined). Top-ranked: Forsyth County (Georgia) at 66% proficiency.

Filtered to districts with 2+ schools and 200+ students. Data from NCES Common Core of Data + EDFacts assessment results.

Rank	District	State	Schools	Students	Proficiency	Grad Rate
1	Forsyth County	GA	42	54,077	66%	86%
2	Poway Unified	CA	39	34,663	64%	82%
3	Frisco Isd	TX	74	66,916	64%	85%
4	Irvine Unified	CA	45	36,462	63%	85%
5	Douglas County School District No. Re 1	CO	88	62,341	62%	77%
6	Jordan District	UT	67	59,421	62%	85%
7	Davis District	UT	93	73,459	61%	85%
8	Fremont Unified	CA	43	33,057	61%	83%
9	St. Johns	FL	51	50,151	61%	83%
10	Alpine District	UT	90	87,136	61%	83%
11	Leander Isd	TX	50	42,415	61%	82%
12	Gilbert Unified District (4239)	AZ	38	33,281	60%	81%
13	Joint School District No. 2	ID	60	39,496	60%	83%
14	Weber District	UT	47	32,888	60%	82%
15	Cherokee County	GA	37	41,891	59%	86%
16	Howard County Public Schools	MD	76	57,676	58%	82%
17	Nebo District	UT	49	37,044	58%	81%
18	Loudoun County Public Schools	VA	96	81,678	58%	83%
19	Cherry Creek School District No. 5 in the county of Arapah	CO	70	52,392	58%	81%
20	Frederick County Public Schools	MD	67	46,899	57%	83%
21	Chandler Unified District #80 (4242)	AZ	44	43,716	57%	85%
22	Deer Valley Unified District (4246)	AZ	41	33,199	57%	80%
23	Canyons District	UT	48	33,386	56%	80%
24	Fairfax County Public Schools	VA	199	179,858	56%	81%
25	Washington District	UT	53	37,572	56%	82%
26	Round Rock Isd	TX	59	46,510	56%	81%
27	Beaverton SD 48J	OR	56	38,292	55%	77%
28	Capistrano Unified	CA	59	41,749	55%	80%
29	Seattle School District No. 1	WA	107	51,238	54%	78%
30	Jefferson County School District No. R-1	CO	162	75,327	54%	79%
31	Wake County Schools	NC	197	159,778	54%	81%
32	Plano Isd	TX	74	48,921	54%	83%
33	Lewisville Isd	TX	62	49,060	54%	80%
34	Anchorage School District	AK	95	43,727	54%	85%
35	Keller Isd	TX	41	34,078	54%	79%
36	Union County Public Schools	NC	52	41,497	53%	77%
37	Harford County Public Schools	MD	55	38,037	53%	82%
38	Cobb County	GA	110	106,703	53%	81%
39	Clear Creek Isd	TX	47	40,693	53%	78%
40	Elk Grove Unified	CA	67	61,886	52%	77%
41	Portland SD 1J	OR	86	43,049	52%	81%
42	Lincoln Public Schools	NE	65	41,850	52%	78%
43	Anne Arundel County Public Schools	MD	123	84,452	52%	80%
44	Montgomery County Public Schools	MD	208	160,554	52%	79%
45	Cincinnati Public Schools	OH	65	35,582	51%	78%
46	Peoria Unified School District (4237)	AZ	44	36,527	51%	79%
47	Katy Isd	TX	72	92,667	51%	76%
48	Sarasota	FL	59	45,077	51%	81%
49	Hawaii Department of Education	HI	295	170,209	51%	77%
50	Cabarrus County Schools	NC	44	34,810	51%	80%

Methodology

Districts are ranked by their average proficiency rate, calculated as the mean of math and reading proficiency on state standardized assessments (EDFacts). We filter to districts with at least 2 schools and 200 students enrolled, to exclude tiny single-school districts that don't represent meaningful district-level data.

Proficiency is reported at the district level — meaning all schools in the district share the same proficiency number in our dataset. School-level proficiency would be ideal but isn't published by EDFacts at scale.

Other ranking sites (Niche, US News, GreatSchools) blend in teacher pay, parent reviews, demographics, and college outcomes — useful but more subjective. We use only the federal data and rank purely by academic outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no single national ranking — different aggregators (Niche, US News, GreatSchools) use different weightings of test scores, teacher pay, college admissions, and reviews. The list above ranks districts by EDFacts proficiency rates (the percent of students proficient in math and reading on state assessments) — a federal data source. Top-ranked districts cluster in suburban areas of the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest, with strong representation from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, California, and Illinois.

We rank by average proficiency rate (math + reading combined) from EDFacts, the federal assessment-result database used by the US Department of Education. We exclude districts with fewer than 2 schools or missing proficiency data. Other ranking sites (Niche, US News, GreatSchools) blend in teacher pay, parent reviews, college outcomes, and demographics — useful but more subjective. EDFacts is the cleanest available signal of academic outcomes.

By district-average proficiency, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Minnesota consistently rank highest. By individual top districts, the highest-performing single districts are typically in suburban communities adjacent to major metros — Westchester County (NY), the Boston suburbs (MA), Long Island (NY), Marin County (CA), and the North Shore of Chicago (IL).

EDFacts data shows mixed results. The top-performing US districts are almost all traditional public — charter networks tend to be at individual school level, not district. Some charter networks (e.g., Success Academy in NY, KIPP nationally) post strong proficiency numbers, but they're selective in enrollment patterns. Traditional public districts must accept all students in their geographic boundary, which makes their proficiency rates more representative of the population they serve.

Research from the National Center on Improving Educational Outcomes consistently identifies: (1) sustained leadership focused on academics, (2) coherent K-12 curriculum aligned to state standards, (3) data-driven instruction with frequent formative assessment, (4) high teacher quality with stable staffing, (5) strong family-school engagement. Districts with high proficiency typically combine multiple factors — pure spending or demographics alone don't predict outcomes.

All data is sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (enrollment, school count, demographics) and EDFacts assessment results (proficiency rates). Both are federal data sources used by the US Department of Education. Proficiency rates are reported at the district level and reflect state standardized tests in math and reading.

Sources: NCES Common Core of Data, EDFacts Data Files

Last updated: May 2026

Districts ranked by average EDFacts proficiency (math + reading). Filtered to 2+ schools and 200+ students.

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