While each and every family in San Diego is unique in their own right, it is safe to say that the majority of parents prioritize the education of their children when making the decision of where to raise them. Whether or not you’re currently in the process of deciding where you’d like to raise your family, you can rest assured that we’ve done our research to give you a foundational understanding of how San Diego schools rank in the big scheme of things.
San Diego County is home to three of the top 25 school districts in all of California. According to Niche’s 2019 Rankings of all the school districts in California, San Dieguito Union High School District ranked 5th in the entire state across all districts.
Our next best school district is Poway Unified School District, which came in at 14th in the statewide rankings. With 38 total schools in their district and well over 35,000 students, their lofty place in the rankings is especially impressive considering their size compared to other districts. Not to steal anybody’s thunder, but there wasn’t one school above Poway in the rankings that could match their size. To put things in perspective, San Dieguito High School District has only 11 schools and 12,689 students, about a third of the size of Poway Unified School District. The third and final San Diego school district in California’s top 25 is Coronado School District, which comes in at 22nd in the state. While Coronado may not have been ranked as high as San Dieguito High School District and Poway Unified School District, their district still earned an A ranking according to their Niche’s statistical ranking system.
Within San Diego, there are 762 public schools in the county as a whole. We went ahead and laid out the top 10 public high schools across the county, as reported by Niche.com. If you’re looking for elementary or middle schools and you’d like to research further on your own, we would highly recommend their site as a reliable source of information.
1. Canyon Crest Academy – San Dieguito Union High School District
2. Torrey Pines High School - San Dieguito Union High School District
3. Westview High School – Poway Unified School District
4. Del Norte High School - Poway Unified School District
5. Coronado High School – Coronado Unified School District
6. San Dieguito High Academy - San Dieguito Union High School District
7. Grossmont Middle College High School – Grossmont Union School District
8. Sage Creek High School – Carlsbad Unified School District
9. Rancho Bernardo High School – Poway Unified School District
10. Preuss School UCSD – San Diego Unified School District
Even among native San Diegans, what many people don’t know is that the best public high school in all of California is right here in our own backyard. In 2019, Canyon Crest Academy ranked as the single best public school in the entire state, earning A+ grades in 4 of the 6 key criteria, including Academics, Teachers, College Prep, and Health and Safety. With a graduation rate of 99%, Canyon Crest Academy is a well-rounded public school that our city has every reason to be proud of, even if your local sports teams happen to be rivals. Among the array of reasons to want to invest in a property here in San Diego, the excellent schools are yet another reason to settle down here.