What are Raleigh’s and Durham-Chapel Hill’s top high schools? The 2025 US News list
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- Five Triangle schools ranked in the top 500 U.S. public high schools in 2025
- Raleigh Charter High held the top regional spot; Green Level High followed closely
- Charter schools claimed 8 of the top 20 rankings across Raleigh and Durham areas
Five Triangle schools have cracked the top 500 public high schools nationally in the newest rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
Raleigh Charter High School remained in the top spot in the Triangle in the U.S. News & World Report 2025-26 Best High Schools rankings released Tuesday. The report comes as high schools are starting a new school year in August.
Green Level High School in Cary, Woods Charter School in Chapel Hill, Wake STEM Early College High School in Cary and East Chapel Hill High School also were ranked in the top 500 public high schools in America.
Last year, five Triangle schools also made it into the top 500 after only two schools had reached that mark in 2023.
Greensboro school is top NC school
The Early College at Guilford in Greensboro remained the top public high school in North Carolina. It was ranked No. 31 nationally. In 2023, it was ranked as the nation’s top public high school.
Some highly specialized schools like the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, which has campuses in Durham and Morganton, are not ranked by U.S. News. The public boarding school for academically gifted high school juniors and seniors often earns top rankings on other lists.
U.S. News ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools based on college readiness, proficiency on state exams, performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, performance of underserved students, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.
U.S. News has been rating high schools since 2007.
The rankings were based on the 2023-24 school year.
RTI International, a research firm based in Research Triangle Park, crunched the numbers for the 2025 list.
Top Raleigh metro area schools
The top 10 schools in the Raleigh-Cary metro area (which includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties) are:
- Raleigh Charter High School (No. 5 in the state and No. 206 nationally)
- Green Level High School in Cary (No. 8 in the state and No. 332 nationally)
- Wake STEM Early College High School in Cary (No. 10 in the state and No. 372 nationally)
- Green Hope High School in Cary (No. 13 in the state and No. 555 nationally)
- Triangle Math and Science Academy in Cary (No. 16 in the state and No. 614 nationally)
- Panther Creek High School in Cary (No. 27 in the state and No. 850 nationally)
- Enloe High School in Raleigh (No. 31 in the state and No. 914 nationally)
- North Wake College and Career Academy in Wake Forest (No. 36 in the state and No. 1,018 nationally)
- Apex Friendship High School (No. 39 in the state and No. 1,220 nationally)
- Franklin Academy in Wake Forest (No. 44 in the state and No. 1,477 nationally)
Top Durham-Chapel Hill schools
The top 10 schools in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area (which includes Durham, Orange, Chatham, Granville and Person counties) are:
- Woods Charter School in Chapel Hill (No. 9 in the state and No. 333 nationally)
- East Chapel Hill High School (No. 12 in the state and No. 440 nationally)
- Chapel Hill High School (No. 18 in the state and No. 638 nationally)
- Durham School of the Arts (No. 23 in the state and No. 685 nationally)
- Research Triangle High School (No. 26 in the state and No. 799 nationally)
- Carrboro High School (No. 29 in the state and No. 883 nationally)
- Eno River Academy in Hillsborough (No. 38 in the state and No. 1,188 nationally)
- Roxboro Community School (No. 59 in the state and No. 2,172 nationally)
- City of Medicine Academy in Durham (No. 67 in the state and No. 2,378 nationally)
- Voyager Academy in Durham (No. 84 in the state and No. 3,125 nationally)
Charter schools do well on rankings
Charter schools make up 10 of the top 30 ranked high schools in the state. Charter schools also account for three of the top 10 schools in the Raleigh list and five of the top 10 in the Durham list.
“Public charter schools offer North Carolina parents the freedom to choose which public school environment is best suited for their children’s unique gifts and personality,” Dave Machado, executive director of the NC Coalition for Charter Schools, said in a news release Wednesday. “They complement, rather than compete with, traditional public schools. Congratulations to these outstanding public charter schools, and especially their students and faculty.”
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow. For instance, they’re not required to provide school bus service or participate in the federal school lunch program.
They also have more flexibility in how they spend their money, don’t have to follow the school calendar law and don’t need all their teachers to be licensed.
Read the full report at www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 11:15 AM with the headline "What are Raleigh’s and Durham-Chapel Hill’s top high schools? The 2025 US News list."
