MCHS places No. 2 locally in U.S. News rankings

Moore County High School runner-up in the Tullahoma metro area and No. 199 in Tennessee in the 2026-27 rankings

9:39 p.m. Aug. 18, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Moore County High School ranks No. 2 among public high schools in the Tullahoma metro area in U.S. News & World Report’s new 2026-27 Best High Schools rankings.

MCHS also ranks No. 199 in Tennessee among 382 schools and No. 9,798 nationally among 17,945 schools.

Moore County High School has a 90% graduation rate, according to the U.S. News scorecard.

Sixteen percent of students took at least one Advanced Placement exam, while 5% passed at least one AP exam, according to the scorecard.

AP participation and performance factor into the college-readiness portion of the rankings. U.S. News also considers state-required test performance, graduation rates, curriculum breadth, and how well schools serve students from historically underserved groups.

The rankings are based on six performance measures rather than a single test or statistic.

College Readiness – The proportions of 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one AP or IB exam. Earning a qualifying score is worth three times as much as just taking.

State Assessment Proficiency – Aggregated scores on state assessments that students may be required to pass for graduation.

State Assessment Performance – How aggregated scores on state assessments compare with U.S. News' expectations given the proportions of students who are Black, Hispanic and from low-income households.

Underserved Student Performance – Scores on state assessments aggregated just among students who are Black, Hispanic, and from low-income households. These scores are compared with state norms for non-underserved students, with parity or higher as the goal.

College Curriculum Breadth – The proportions of 12th graders who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and IB exams in multiple areas. More exams are valued more than fewer exams up to a maximum of four. Earning a qualifying score on an exam is worth three times more than taking.

Graduation Rate – The proportion of entering ninth graders who graduated four academic years later.

Despite the 2026-27 label, the rankings do not reflect student performance from the current school year.

U.S. News said the latest rankings use the most recent data available from the 2023-24 school year.

For Moore County High School, the rankings break down this way:

• No. 2 – Tullahoma metro area
• No. 199 – Tennessee
• No. 9,798 – United States
• 90% – graduation rate
• 16% – took at least one AP exam
• 5% – passed at least one AP exam