Source / Brooklyn Latin School
Stuyvesant? Bronx Science? Not this time.
According to U.S. News & World Report’s freshly released 2026-2027 Best High Schools rankings, Brooklyn Latin School just claimed the No. 1 spot in all of New York State, and it’s also the only school statewide to crack the national top 100, landing at No. 73 nationally out of 17,945 ranked schools.
Located on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg, the selective public high school has quietly been building toward this moment for years, and now it’s officially outranking every other high school in the state, including the specialized giants that usually dominate these lists.
Here’s more information on this outpost and why its quietly becoming a national powerhouse.
Source / Brooklyn Latin School
New York’s new top 3
Brooklyn Latin didn’t just edge out the competition, it topped a fresh statewide leaderboard that looks noticeably different from past years.
According to U.S. News’s 2026-2027 New York rankings, the new top three are:
No. 1: Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn
No. 2: City Honors School at Fosdick Masten Park, Buffalo
No. 3: Baccalaureate School for Global Education, Long Island City
No other New York school came close to cracking the national top 100 this cycle, which makes Brooklyn Latin’s showing even more notable.
The numbers behind the ranking
Brooklyn Latin doesn’t just look good on paper, its scorecard is the kind that makes guidance counselors do a double take.
The school posted an overall score of 99.59 out of 100, built on results like:
99% of students took at least one IB exam, and 95% passed at least one
98% mathematics proficiency and 99% reading proficiency
96% science proficiency
99% graduation rate, well above the state median
A 96.3 out of 100 College Readiness Index score
Brooklyn Latin also ranked No. 2 in New York for both College Readiness Index and College Curriculum Breadth Index, trailing only a handful of schools statewide on any individual metric.
A school built on rigor, not resources
Brooklyn Latin is also proof that elite results don’t require an elite ZIP code.
Of its 772 students across grades 9 through 12, 47.5% are Asian, 21% are white, 10.6% are Hispanic, 9.8% are Black, and 9.2% identify as two or more races.
Fifty-seven percent of students are classified as economically disadvantaged, with 51% enrolled in the free lunch program, according to U.S. News’s school profile data.
It’s a public school, tuition-free and open through a competitive admissions process, not a private academy with a hefty price tag attached.
The school leans heavily on the International Baccalaureate curriculum rather than the AP-heavy track most specialized high schools follow, which partly explains why its scores stack up so well nationally.
New York’s Department of Education doesn’t authorize the College Board to share AP data with U.S. News, so schools statewide are scored solely on IB participation and performance instead, a system that clearly plays to Brooklyn Latin’s strengths.
How the rankings actually work
U.S. News evaluated 17,945 schools nationally and 1,232 schools in New York for this cycle, ranking schools on factors including College Readiness Index, College Curriculum Breadth, State Assessment Proficiency, State Assessment Performance, and Graduation Rate.
Brooklyn Latin ranked No. 65 nationally for College Readiness Index (No. 2 in-state), No. 37 nationally for College Curriculum Breadth (also No. 2 in-state), No. 445 nationally for State Assessment Proficiency (No. 30 in-state), and No. 313 nationally for State Assessment Performance (No. 21 in-state).
Why this matters for NYC families
For a city with no shortage of specialized high schools competing for bragging rights, Brooklyn Latin taking the top spot statewide, and pulling ahead nationally, is a genuinely big deal.
It’s a reminder that the city’s most rigorous education isn’t confined to the handful of schools most families default to when they think “top NYC public school,” and that a Williamsburg address is currently producing better outcomes than schools in Manhattan or the Bronx that usually get more attention.
If you’re navigating the city’s high school admissions process and rankings like this carry weight in your decision-making, Brooklyn Latin just gave itself a new headline to put on the wall, and it’s one that outranks every other public high school in New York State this year.