Grants Pass High School has climbed into distinguished territory among Oregon’s public high schools, earning the No. 1 ranking in Southern Oregon and Josephine County while placing No. 19 statewide in the 2026-2027 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings.
The recognition makes GPHS the highest-ranked public high school south of Eugene, placing a Grants Pass campus among the state’s top 20 at a time when students are also posting record graduation numbers, earning thousands of college credits and competing at high levels in academics, career education and the performing arts.
For a community high school serving Southern Oregon, the national evaluation provides a substantial benchmark. Approximately 27,000 eligible public high schools across the country were evaluated for the latest rankings, with nearly 18,000 receiving a ranking.
“Being recognized among Oregon’s top high schools is a reflection of the incredible work happening every day in our classrooms,” Grants Pass School District 7 Superintendent Tim Sweeney said. “Our students are challenging themselves, pursuing their interests, earning college credit, and competing at the highest levels. We are proud of them and grateful for the staff, families, and community members who support them.”
The ranking accompanies a succession of academic milestones at GPHS.
The school has now recorded three consecutive record-high graduation rates, culminating with a 96.2 percent graduation rate for the 2024-25 school year. At the same time, students are increasingly completing college coursework before leaving high school.
GPHS offers more than 50 college-level courses, including 18 Advanced Placement courses. During the 2025-26 school year, students earned more than 4,000 college credits, allowing many to leave high school with university-level coursework already completed.
The range of opportunities extends well beyond a traditional college-preparatory curriculum. Eight Career and Technical Education programs of study give students another avenue to develop skills and prepare for life after graduation, while participants in those programs regularly reach statewide and national competitions.
“GPHS is a place where students can find many different pathways to success,” Principal Jason Garcia said. “Whether a student is preparing for a four-year college, earning college credit, developing career skills through CTE, competing in academics, athletics or the arts, or pursuing another path after graduation, our goal is to give every student meaningful opportunities to discover what they can accomplish.”
Scholarship results have added another chapter to the school’s recent record.
Seven GPHS students were selected as Ford Scholars for the second consecutive year, matching the school record established in 2024-25. The highly selective Ford Scholars Program serves students from Oregon and Siskiyou County, California, who plan to pursue four-year degrees in their home state.
The scholarship can cover up to 90 percent of a student’s unmet financial need. Recipients are selected based on qualities that include character, leadership, community care and motivation to succeed, making the selection of seven GPHS students in consecutive years another notable achievement for the school.
Success at GPHS has not been confined to classrooms, examinations or college preparation.
The school’s marching band and color guard have built one of its longest-running competitive streaks, capturing Northwest Association for Performing Arts championships for seven consecutive years. The accomplishment adds performing arts to a growing list of areas in which GPHS students have maintained sustained competitive success.
While those recent achievements help illustrate the school’s current direction, the U.S. News rankings are based on an earlier snapshot of student performance.
The 2026-2027 rankings use the most current data available to U.S. News, drawn from the 2023-2024 school year. Schools are evaluated through six performance indicators that include college readiness, curriculum breadth, state assessment proficiency and performance, underserved student performance and graduation rate. College readiness also considers participation and performance in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate examinations.
That timeline creates an important point of context for the latest ranking. GPHS earned its No. 19 position in Oregon using data that predates several of the accomplishments the school is reporting today. The record 96.2 percent graduation rate was reached during the following 2024-25 school year, while students accumulated more than 4,000 college credits during 2025-26.
The ranking therefore captures one period in the school’s performance while the more recent graduation, college-credit and scholarship figures provide a picture of what has followed.
“Recognition like this is a direct reflection of the dedication of our staff,” Sweeney said. “Our staff works tirelessly to meet students where they’re at and take them to new heights. We are incredibly proud of the way they support, challenge, and believe in our students every day.”
For Grants Pass High School, the numbers now stretch across several different measures of student accomplishment.
A No. 19 statewide ranking places GPHS among Oregon’s highest-rated public high schools. A 96.2 percent graduation rate represents the third consecutive school record. More than 4,000 college credits earned in a single academic year demonstrate the scale of advanced coursework underway on campus. Seven Ford Scholars in each of the past two years reflect individual academic and leadership achievement, while seven consecutive championships for the marching band and color guard show a record of sustained success beyond conventional academics.
Those figures describe a high school offering students’ multiple routes toward graduation and whatever comes afterward, from four-year universities and college credit to technical education, competitive programs, athletics and the arts.
For Grants Pass and the surrounding community, the newest honor places a familiar local school on a considerably larger stage. Among thousands of public high schools evaluated nationwide and schools throughout Oregon, Grants Pass High School enters the 2026-2027 academic year ranked No. 19 in the state, No. 1 in Josephine County and No. 1 across Southern Oregon.