What are the Best High Schools in St. Louis?

by Karen Goodman on June 11, 2011

j0399897 What are the Best High Schools in St. Louis? Real estate agents here this question a lot.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer. There are so many factors you could consider when comparing high school performance.

College admission test scores (ACT or SAT)
Standardized testing scores (MAP testing in Missouri)
Graduation rate
Dropout rate
Class size
Teacher years of experience or education level
How many graduates go to 4 yr colleges
Discipline issues

The list goes on and on. Plus, having a school that does wonders with gifted children may not be the right choice if your child has a learning disability.

Of course, you could simply go to one of those ranking websites which will plug school data into a formula and spit out a ranking order. These sites will give you a simple answer to your question. But how do you know if the factors that they use to rank the schools are the same factors that you think are important?

St. Louis Region High School Statistics:

The Missouri Department of Education provides a wealth of information online which will allow you to decide for yourself how Missouri schools compare to each other.

I have put together charts for the St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County public high schools so you can make an educated decision for yourself on which high school is best for your child.

My goal is to give you a snapshot of how the schools are performing by giving you:

standardized testing results (MAP testing & average ACT scores)
how many students graduate
how many graduates go to 4 yr colleges, 2 yr colleges or vocational school
how many students are low-income (% of students eligible for free or reduced school lunches)

I include free school lunch program information because this gives you a feel for how expensive the housing in a school district will be. Plus, there are wide differences in the quality of education lower income areas. I hope that the charts will help families with limited income to identify the best schools in the areas where they can afford to live.

Click the buttons above to see the full high school reports

All of the information in the charts above were pulled from the Missouri Department of Education website. You can find additional information including student and census demographics, teacher background, financial information, discipline incidents and more.

In addition, the same information is available for elementary and middle schools on the state website so you can decide for yourself which of these schools you prefer.

Once you identify a few school districts of interest, get a feel for the price of homes by going to the home search, selecting the School District tab and searching by high school.

Relocating to the St. Louis region?

If you are moving to the St. Louis area, you will want to search for homes by high school rather than by city or zip code. Contact us and we can set up a personalized home search which will email you listings in the high school boundaries that you select.

When you are ready to come to St. Louis for a house hunting trip, we’ll work with you to make sure that you choose a home in the area that best meets your housing and school preferences, limits your work commute and fits into your budget.