Best Public Schools in Providence, RI

Providence has 59 schools—28 elementary, 10 middle, 20 high schools and one alternative school—serving students across district, charter and specialized programs. The 2025–26 results include elementary and middle-school RICAS/NGSA scores and high-school SAT and PSAT10 results; state benchmarks are 33.1% for ELA, 31.9% for math and 31.1% for science. The clearest takeaway for families is that results vary sharply from school to school, so area-wide figures can hide major differences between options.

Vartan Gregorian Elementary School leads the supplied elementary results in all three subjects, with 48.3% ELA, 50.0% math and 44.9% science—15.2, 18.1 and 13.8 percentage points above the state benchmarks. Classical High School stands out among high schools, with 86.9% SAT ELA and 58.1% SAT math proficiency, respectively 36.3 and 42.9 points above the next-highest supplied school, RINI Middle College. AF Providence Mayoral Middle also exceeds state benchmarks in ELA and math, at 40.7% and 33.7%. At the lower end, Alfred Lima Senior Elementary School has the lowest exact elementary ELA result, 7.6%, while Highlander Elementary Charter has the lowest exact math result, 6.3%; Esek Hopkins Middle reports ELA below 5%.

Recent changes are mixed rather than a citywide trend: AF Providence Mayoral Middle rose 10.3 points in ELA, 5.8 in math and 8.1 in science from 2024–25, while Times2 Elementary School fell 6.5, 9.7 and 11.4 points in those subjects. Vartan Gregorian remained the elementary leader despite declines in ELA and math; its science result increased 4.9 points. SchoolDigger’s ranking percentile for AF Providence Mayoral Middle climbed from 36 to 66 over three reported years, while Asa Messer Elementary School fell from 53 to 27. Context measures do not offer a simple guide to performance: E-Cubed Academy has an 11.6 student–teacher ratio but 15.0% SAT ELA proficiency, while Vartan Gregorian has a 42.12% free/reduced-lunch rate and the strongest supplied elementary results. Some scores are suppressed or reported only as a bound, and schools’ grade spans and tested grades differ.