Pxl 20260818 154709199 — New Century Tech High School in Huntsville (Michael Seale / The Bama Buzz)

There’s a new Alabama high school on top of the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

New Century Tech High School in Huntsville has claimed the top spot in the state rankings and is one of three Alabama high schools to make the top 500 nationally.

The rankings are based on six key metrics including:

College readiness
State assessment proficiency
State assessment performance
Underserved student performance
College curriculum breadth
Graduation rate

Keep reading to learn more about the rankings + see the complete top 10 for our state.

U.S. News & World Report ranks top high schools in Alabama

Homewoodhighschool 2 E1748369514191 — (Homewood Board of Education)

New Century Tech, which ranks 131st on the national list, moves into the state’s top spot this year after being ranked third in last year’s rankings. The Huntsville school had the highest “College Readiness” score in the state.

Two schools in the Birmingham metro were not too far behind with Homewood and Mountain Brook coming in at 212th and 215th in the country, respectively.

Here is the full top 10 list of best high schools in Alabama according to the U.S. News & World Report along with their national ranking: