These are the Kansas City area’s top 10 schools, new ranking says. Did yours make it?
New parents and families moving to the Kansas City area usually ask one specific question: Where are the best schools?
A new ranking may have answered that question.
Niche, a school and neighborhood ranking service and data aggregator that pulls information from dozens of sources and reviews from current and former students, recently released its 2025 rankings for the best public high schools in the Kansas City metro.
2025’s list looks very similar to 2024’s, where many schools in Overland Park took the top spots.
Here’s a closer look at the top 10 public high schools in the metro, and where other schools fall on the list.
Blue Valley schools claim the top spots again
Nine of the top 10 schools on Niche’s rankings are based on the Kansas side, and the top four all have one thing in common: They all begin with Blue Valley.
Blue Valley North High School is once again the best school in the Kansas City area — and the entire state of Kansas. Blue Valley West High School, Blue Valley High School and Blue Valley Northwest High School round out the top four.
All four of these schools in the Blue Valley Unified School District received an A+ in Niche’s rankings. Blue Valley Northwest and Blue Valley West have the lowest listed student-to-teacher ratio, at 14 students per full-time teacher. Each school is located in Overland Park, except for Blue Valley High in Stilwell, and has around 1,400 students.
One Missouri school makes the top 10
2024’s ranking saw no Missouri schools crack the top 10 for best in the Kansas City area. The 2025 list sees one school ranked as the 10th best: Lee’s Summit High School.
Lee’s Summit High School earned an A in Niche’s rankings and also has the fifth-best public school teachers in Missouri, according to Niche. It’s also the best public high school in Jackson County.
Public high schools in Kansas took the rest of the top 10 in Niche’s ranking, with schools in Kansas City, Olathe and Shawnee Mission school districts claiming the five other spots. Here are the next schools on the list:
- No. 5: Shawnee Mission East High School
No. 7: Olathe North High School
Niche gave all of these public high schools an A grade.
The next best high school on the Missouri side, Lee’s Summit West High School, was ranked 12th. Lee’s Summit North High School ranked 14th and the first Kansas City, Missouri, public high school to appear in the ranking was the Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, coming in at No. 15.
What do you want to know about education in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
