Marshwood High School has been rated No. 11 among Maine’s 124 public high schools by U.S. News & World Report, which posts its Best High Schools ranking every two years.
U.S. News also rated Marshwood in the top third of public high schools nationally, qualifying the school for recognition as a Best High School.
Marshwood was listed No. 12 in Maine in the ranking two years ago, according to Assistant Superintendent Heidi Early-Hersey .
“We’ve moved up so that means we have improved,” Early-Hersey told the MSAD35 Board of Directors at its Aug. 19 meeting. “This is good news – we’ll take it.”
The 2026-27 ranking is based on two-year-old data, she said, suggesting the current data would show even more improvement in student proficiency.
The 10 schools graded higher than Marshwood by U.S. News are, in this order, Greely High in Cumberland, Kennebunk High, Cape Elizabeth High, Mt. Desert Island High, Scarborough High, Falmouth High, Wisdom Middle High in St. Agatha, Gray-New Gloucester High, Jonesport Beals High, and Easton Junior-Senior High.
Early-Hersey noted that Maine ranks schools based on graduation rates and student proficiency in math and English.
Kennebunk and Greeley always rank higher in all evaluations, she said, because they also submit data from their International Baccalaureate programs, which account for 40% of their score.
Schools in other states may also use data from IB programs or from Advanced Placement exams, she added.
Fifty-six percent of Greely students and 29% of Kennebunk students participated in IB programs, according to the U.S. News website. Gray-New Gloucester High, ranked 8th, also offers an IB program that enrolled 28% of its students.
Enrollment at the top 11 schools ranged from 683 at Kennebunk to 59 at Wisdom and Jonesport Beals; Marshwood had 659 students.
U.S. News also notes the number of economically disadvantaged students, which among the top 11 ranged from 7% and 8% at Falmouth and Greely, to 27% at Mt. Desert Island, and 56% at Jonesport Beals. The lowest numbers were at Cape Elizabeth and Marshwood, which reported 10% and 15%, respectively.
During the annual budget review, Early-Hersey told the Reporter she believes comparing Marshwood’s student proficiency and per pupil costs to the regional schools it competes against in sports is a better measure than comparison to schools statewide.
According to the Maine Education Department dashboard, MSAD35’s per pupil cost of $19,862 is lower than the state average of $21,717 as well as seven of the 10 regional schools in the group. At the same time, Marshwood students tested at 85.5% in reading proficiency – the highest of the schools in the regional group.
York, which has a per pupil cost of $29,474 , the highest of the 10, had a high school reading proficiency rate of 70.9%. York is ranked 25th among Maine public high schools in the U.S. News assessment.
Yarmouth in Cumberland County, the state’s wealthiest county, had a per pupil cost of $25,284 and the highest ranking in high school math proficiency with a score of 77.2%. Marshwood scored 66.1%.
U.S. News & World Report, which began publishing its famous college rankings in 1983, has been evaluating and ranking public high schools since 2007.
