Leonardtown High School is St. Mary’s County’s top-ranked high school in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026-27 Best High Schools rankings, placing 62nd among Maryland’s ranked public high schools. Leonardtown posts a graduation rate of 95% or above, a College Readiness Index of 34.3 — the highest in the district — and enrolls 2,118 students in grades 9-12, the largest of the county’s high schools.
Chopticon High School in Morganza ranks second in the county and 124th statewide, with a 93% graduation rate, a College Readiness Index of 26.6, and 1,526 students enrolled.
Great Mills High School ranks third in the county and 132nd in Maryland, with an 84% graduation rate, a College Readiness Index of 28.7, and 1,697 students enrolled. Established in 1929, Great Mills is among the oldest continuously operating schools in the state.
Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center in Leonardtown, the district’s fourth high school, is not numerically ranked by U.S. News; it serves as the county’s dedicated career and technical education center.
A separate, independently run ranking system from SchoolDigger — which uses different methodology than U.S. News and isn’t directly comparable on a numeric basis — similarly identifies Leonardtown as the district’s top performer, ranking it 28th among 220 Maryland high schools with a 4-star rating, ahead of Chopticon’s 48th-place SchoolDigger ranking. The two systems agree on the relative order even though their specific figures aren’t on the same scale.
St. Mary’s County Public Schools serves roughly 17,200 students across 26 schools, including 19 elementary schools, 4 middle schools and 4 high schools. The district’s overall four-year graduation rate is about 90.8%, above the state average, according to SchoolDigger’s district-level analysis.
U.S. News’ rankings are based on state standardized test performance, graduation rates, and Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exam participation and pass rates, evaluated across roughly 27,000 U.S. public high schools, with nearly 18,000 ranked nationally for the 2026-27 cycle.
Neither St. Mary’s County Public Schools nor its Board of Education had issued a public statement on this year’s rankings as of this writing.
