Sarasota County has something to brag about this week. Pine View School in Osprey was named the top public high school in Florida and No. 13 nationally in the 2026-2027 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings. The publication evaluated roughly 27,000 eligible public high schools across the country, ranking close to 18,000 of them, and Pine View came out ahead of every other campus in the state. The next Florida school on the list, Marine Academy of Science and Technology in North Miami, landed at No. 31.
The numbers behind the ranking are striking. Pine View reported 100% proficiency in Algebra 1, Geometry, Biology and U.S. History, and the school graduated every student in four of the most recent five reported years. Established in 1969, Pine View serves intellectually gifted students in grades 2 through 12 on a single campus, a model that makes it unique in the region. The rankings use data from the 2023-2024 school year and were developed with RTI International, so they reflect a snapshot rather than the full picture of any school.
It’s worth remembering that no ranking captures everything, from a student’s happiness to their growth in the arts or athletics. Even so, having a campus this strong in our own backyard is a real point of pride for the Suncoast, and families with gifted students have options many communities can’t offer. So we want to hear from you: did you or someone you know attend Pine View, and what did the experience mean for you?
