Hinsdale Central High School has a new number for families weighing school quality: the school just jumped 71 spots in the national rankings.
U.S. News & World Report released its 2026-27 Best High Schools rankings on Tuesday, Aug. 18, placing Hinsdale Central at No. 231 nationally and No. 9 in Illinois. That's up from No. 302 nationally a year ago and No. 350 two years ago, according to prior Patch reporting on the rankings. The school has climbed 119 spots in two cycles.
Central outranked several familiar suburban competitors. New Trier Township High School in Winnetka landed at No. 324 nationally (No. 13 in Illinois). Neuqua Valley in Naperville came in at No. 295 (No. 12 in Illinois). Only Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, at No. 208 (No. 8 in Illinois), finished ahead of Central among non-selective-enrollment schools statewide.
Illinois's top four spots went to Chicago selective-enrollment schools, led by Northside College Prep at No. 30 nationally. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a state residential school in Aurora, rounded out the top five at No. 88.
What the ranking measures
The rankings, produced by RTI International using 2023-24 school year data, weigh six factors. College readiness carries the most weight at 30%, measuring the share of seniors who scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam or 4 or higher on an IB exam. State assessment proficiency and state assessment performance each count for 20%. Underserved student performance, graduation rate and college curriculum breadth round out the formula at 10% each.
Central's U.S. News profile lists a 70% AP participation rate and a 12th-grade class of 635 students, though last year's ranking cycle reported 64% participation from the same underlying 2023-24 data. The discrepancy may reflect a methodology update. The school is one of two high schools in District 86.
What the numbers don't capture
The methodology rewards schools that outperform what their demographics predict on state assessments. For a school like Central, where only about 8% of students come from low-income families compared to nearly 50% statewide, that bar is high. A wealthy district doesn't get extra credit for wealth; it has to beat expectations shaped by that wealth.
Private schools like Nazareth Academy are excluded entirely because comparable public data isn't available for them.
The rankings also rely on a single year of state test data from 2023-24, the last year the SAT served as Illinois's high school accountability exam. District 86 publishes its own AP score summaries and SAT data for families who want a fuller picture. U.S. News evaluated roughly 27,000 eligible public high schools and ranked nearly 18,000 of them.
No District 86 official had commented publicly on the new ranking as of Tuesday evening.
Hinsdale education week ahead
District 86's next board meeting date and agenda have not yet been posted. Families can check the district's website at hinsdale86.org for meeting schedules and public comment sign-up details as the school year begins.
