Salem, Canton and Plymouth high schools all ranked in Michigan's top 40 in U.S. News & World Report's 2026 Best High Schools list. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools announced the results Thursday, Sept. 10.

The three schools share P-CCS's 305-acre P-CEP campus, which serves roughly 6,200 students. All three also placed among the top 400 high schools nationally for STEM education and landed in the top 5% of more than 27,000 schools reviewed nationwide.

Salem led the group at No. 34 in Michigan. Canton followed at No. 37, with a national rank of No. 1,220. Plymouth came in at No. 40 in the state and No. 1,265 nationally.

Joseph Greene, P-CCS executive director of high school education, credited the results to the work of P-CEP's teachers and students. He said in the district's announcement that the shared campus gives students "access to an extraordinary range of courses, programs and experiences."

The rankings evaluate schools on college readiness, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exam performance, state assessment proficiency, underserved student performance and graduation rates. The P-CEP campus reports a graduation rate of 96.72%.

AP participation is one factor in the rankings. At Canton, 55% of students take at least one AP course. At Plymouth, the rate is 49%. In August 2025, Superintendent Monica Merritt told the board that 91% of AP exams taken by P-CEP students earned a score of 3 or higher, more than 20 percentage points above the national average.

The Bosch Community Fund awarded P-CCS a $47,135 grant in June 2026 to expand robotics and STEM programming, part of more than $440,000 the fund has directed to the district since 2012.

The 2026 results mark a slight shift from 2025, when Merritt said all three schools ranked in Michigan's top 36. Canton and Plymouth each fell outside that top-36 threshold this year.

P-CCS also named 29 National Merit Semifinalists from the P-CEP campus on Sept. 10.