Niche Ranks Pleasant Hill's Best Schools

PLEASANT HILL, CA— Pleasant Hill Adventist Academy is the top-ranked school in Pleasant Hill, according to new rankings released Monday by Niche. The company gave Pleasant Hill Adventist an overall grade of A and ranked it the 239th-best private high school in the state of California.

Here are some of the other best schools in and near Pleasant Hill, and their Niche grades and rankings (if applicable) for 2020:

• Acalanes High School, A+, 107th-best public high school in the state
• Springhill Elementary School, A, 383rd-best public high school in the state
• M.H. Stanley Middle School, A, 162nd-best public middle school in the state
• College Park High School, A-, 399th-best public high school in the state
• Valhalla Elementary School, A-
• Horizons School: Independent Study, A-, 423rd-best public high school in the state
• Sequoia Elementary School, A-
• Acalanes Center For Independent Study, B+, 531st-best public high school in the state
• Pleasant Hill Elementary School, B+
• Strandwood Elementary School, B+
• Sequoia Middle School, B+, 805th-best public middle school in the state
• Pleasant Hill Middle School, B+, 828th-best public middle school in the state
• Valley View Middle School, B+, 847th-best public high school in the state
• Eagle Peak Montessori, B, 873rd-best public middle school in the state
• Hidden Valley Elementary School, B
• Gregory Gardens Elementary School, B
• Ygnacio Valley High School, C+

Niche looked at more than 94,000 public schools, 4,100 private schools and nearly 11,000 school districts across the country. The rankings — searchable by city or district — are meant to help parents and students find schools that best fit their needs.

“Unlike traditional school rankings, which rely almost exclusively on test scores and academic performance, Niche’s rankings provide a real-life view of what it’s like to attend a given school,” the company said in a news release.

Comments from current students, alumni, and parents are included in the analysis, as well as observations about things like campus life, extracurricular activities, sports options, diversity, and programs for gifted and special needs students.

“Parents and students need more than test-score data,” Luke Skurman, CEO at Niche, said in the news release. “They need to understand what it’s really like to attend a school before they start the application or registration process.”

For the first time, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, were ranked the top private and public high schools, respectively, in the nation.

2020 top public high schools:

1. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology
2. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
3. Walter Payton College Prep
4. Stuyvesant High School
5. Bergen County Academies

2020 top private high schools:

1. Phillips Exeter Academy
2. St. Mark’s School of Texas
3. Phillips Academy
4. The College Preparatory School
5. Trinity School

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.