Here are Nassau’s top 20 high schools for 2026-27, U.S. News & World Report reveals

Thirteen Nassau County high schools landed among New York’s top 100 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools rankings released on Tuesday.

Add in nine highly performing Suffolk high schools and Long Island accounts for 22 high schools among the state’s top 100.

The U.S. News rankings, released today, graded out 18,000 public high schools nationwide — across every state and the District of Columbia.

Nationally, Central Magnet School in Tennessee climbed two spots to snag the No. 1 ranking in the country. Meanwhile, BASIS Tucson North in Arizona, last year’s No. 1 high school, dropped all the way to No. 58.

U.S. News noted that each of this year’s top 20 national schools have either selective enrollment or admission by lottery.

How the rankings work

U.S. News scores schools using six factors:

• College readiness based on AP/IB exam participation and performance (30%)
• State assessment proficiency in math, science and reading (20%)
• State assessment performance relative to expectations for the school’s underserved students (20%)
• How underserved students performed compared to their non-underserved peers statewide (10%)
• Breadth of college-level coursework across subjects (10%)
• Four-year graduation rate for the class that entered ninth grade in 2020-2021 (10%)

Nassau County’s Top 20

Here are the county’s top 20 high schools, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report (each school’s place in the state rankings is in parentheses).

1. South Side High School in Rockville Centre (No. 8 in NY)
2. North Shore Senior High School in Glen Head (No. 11)
3. Locust Valley High School in Locust Valley (No. 14)
4. Long Beach Senior High School in Long Beach (No. 26)
5. Jericho Senior High School in Jericho (No. 41)
6. Great Neck South High School in Great Neck (No. 43)
7. Garden City High School in Garden City (No. 48)
8. Syosset Senior High School in Syosset (No. 54)
9. Manhasset Secondary School in Manhasset (No. 55)
10. Herricks High School in New Hyde Park (No. 59)
11. Great Neck North High School in Great Neck (No. 73)
12. Bethpage Senior High School in Bethpage (No. 83)
13. Clarke High School in Westbury (No. 86)
14. Wheatley School in Old Westbury (No. 101)
15. Roslyn High School in Roslyn Heights (No. 107)
16. Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in Port Washington (No. 110)
17. Valley Stream South High School in Valley Stream (No. 113)
18. Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School in Plainview (No. 115)
19. East Meadow High School in East Meadow (No. 135)
20. MacArthur Senior High School in Levittown (No. 191)

_{Top: South Side High School’s 2025 graduating class shows off where they’re studying in college (Facebook/Rockville Centre School District).}