(NEXSTAR) – After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional learning and left schools scrambling for instructors and bus drivers – all while juggling lesson plans and health protocols – one company has sorted through the data to determine the top high schools in California for 2023.
On Tuesday, Niche, a site that combines ratings from students, parents and alumni with quantitative data, released its rankings for both public and private high schools.
The vast majority of schools chosen for their academic excellence data and high marks from students, alumni and parents, are from two metro areas – greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The top public school in the state for yet another year, according to Niche, is Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto. Here are the top 10 schools for 2023:
| 2023 Ranking | School | City | 2022 Ranking |
| 1 | Henry M. Gunn High School | Palo Alto, CA | 1 |
| 2 | Troy High School | Fullerton, CA | 6 |
| 3 | Canyon Crest Academy | San Diego, CA | 2 |
| 4 | California Academy of Mathematics & Science | Carson, CA | 4 |
| 5 | Orange County School of the Arts | Santa Ana, CA | 7 |
| 6 | Palo Alto High School | Palo Alto, CA | 5 |
| 7 | Riverside STEM Academy | Riverside, CA | 27 |
| 8 | Saratoga High School | Saratoga, CA | 3 |
| 9 | University High School | Los Angeles, CA | 10 |
| 10 | Los Altos High School | Los Altos, CA | 14 |
As for private high schools in California, Harvard-Westlake School jumped up two spots to the top rank for 2023:
| 2023 Ranking | School | City | 2022 Ranking |
| 1 | Harvard-Westlake School | Los Angeles, CA | 3 |
| 2 | The College Preparatory School | Oakland, CA | 1 |
| 3 | The Nueva School | San Mateo, CA | 2 |
| 4 | Stanford Online High School | N/A | 4 |
| 5 | Crystal Springs Uplands School | Hillsborough, CA | 6 |
| 6 | Castilleja School | Palo Alto, CA | 5 |
| 7 | Flintridge Preparatory School | Flintridge, CA | 7 |
| 8 | The Bishop’s School | La Jolla, CA | 8 |
| 9 | The Harker School | San Jose, CA | 17 |
| 10 | Polytechnic School | Pasadena, CA | 9 |
One thing parents of California public school students won’t have to worry about this year is in-school meals. All public schools are offering free meals in the 2022-2023 school year statewide as part of the Universal Meals Program, which expands on the federal National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
The new program is a change from the past when students could only qualify for free meals based on criteria such as the poverty level in the school’s surrounding area, the parents’ income taxes and the ZIP code in which the student lived.
See Niche’s website for the complete list of schools and more information about the methodology.
