Best high schools in the Tri-Cities? Here’s what US News & World Report says

When I talk to clients who are planning a move to the Tri-Cities, one of the most common questions — if there are kids in the family — is “What are the best schools in the Tri-Cities?”

Problem is…I can’t answer that question! It’s similar to why I can’t tell you which are the best neighborhoods in the Tri-Cities — because I’d risk violating Fair Housing laws.

So when a client asks about local schools, I usually suggest they take a look at GreatSchools.org, which is probably the most popular and well-known school ratings site. But there’s also US News & World Report, which has been ranking schools for about as long as I can remember. And in fact, their newest high school rankings recently came out! Here’s a look at how some of our local Tri-Cities high schools did.

Tri-Cities High Schools in the Washington Top 100 (2024 Rankings)

Three of our area’s high schools made the top 100 out of 753 high schools that US News ranked. Here they are in order:

58. Hanford High School, Richland

Hanford scored a 79.32 on US News’ ranking system, which ranks it the highest among our local schools, 58th in the state, and #3,651 in the country.

72. Kamiakin High School, Kennewick

With a score of 74.33, Kamiakin ranked 72nd in the state and #4,532 in the country.

85. Richland High School, Richland

Richland ranked 85th in the state and #5,454 in the country with a score of 69.11 in the US News system.

The US News website doesn’t seem to list all 753 schools in Washington state. I can only find about the top 230 or so. Other local schools that are listed include:

128. Southridge High School, Kennewick
168. Kennewick High School, Kennewick
209. Chiawana High School, Pasco

So there’s one “take” on which Tri-Cities high schools are the best. For what it’s worth, a search on GreatSchools.org for high schools within 15 miles of Kennewick results in fairly similar ratings. But ratings like these don’t always reflect what my clients need in a school or a school district. So I always encourage them to research and make their own decisions about which schools might be the best for their family situation.