Best High Schools in Springfield, VA

Springfield, Virginia is served by three very different high schools within Fairfax County Public Schools: West Springfield High, a large traditional school with 2,799 students; Lewis High, a midsized traditional school with 1,658 students; and Fairfax County Adult High, a much smaller adult/alternative program with 226 students, all covering grades 9 through 12. The three schools represent three distinct realities, and the differences between them are stark across nearly every metric.

West Springfield High is the clear academic leader in the area, ranked 46th of 331 Virginia high schools for 2025–2026 with a 98.7% graduation rate and just a 0.7% dropout rate. Its SOL proficiency results are exceptional, including 100% proficiency in 10th-grade Chemistry and 95.83% in 12th-grade English Reading, and only 16.33% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Lewis High, by contrast, ranks 273rd of 331 with a 1-star rating, a 91.5% graduation rate, and a 5.7% dropout rate. Nearly 69% of Lewis High students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and while it spends more per student ($13,867 vs. $9,762 at West Springfield High), proficiency rates remain far below its neighbor. Still, Lewis High has bright spots: 90.78% proficiency in 9th-grade Biology and 76.39% in 12th-grade English Reading, the latter above both district and state averages.

Fairfax County Adult High is an outlier that should not be directly compared to the traditional schools. Its 22.9% graduation rate and 61.6% dropout rate reflect its mission as an adult/alternative program, though its 81.82% proficiency for 10th-grade Algebra I in 2025–2026 topped both district and state averages. Across all three schools, the data show a clear pattern: economics and performance track closely together, with West Springfield High's low poverty rate corresponding to top outcomes and Lewis High's high-need population facing greater challenges. Notably, 9th-grade SOL scores are consistently higher than 10th-grade scores in the same subjects at both traditional schools, likely because stronger students test earlier. Higher spending at Lewis High has not closed the achievement gap, but individual students at every school, including the adult program, can and do succeed.