Pride in USC

Upper St. Clair School District ranked as the No. 1 school district in Pennsylvania in 2022 and 2023, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times. In 2024 and 2025, Upper St. Clair ranked No. 2 in the statewide rankings, which began in 2017.

Debuting at No. 10 in 2017, the district climbed to No. 5 in 2018, No. 3 in 2019, and No. 2 in 2020, before reaching No. 1 in 2022 and 2023, and No. 2 in 2024 and 2025. There were no rankings in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Upper St. Clair School District has been recognized as the seventh best school district in the United States and No. 1 in Pennsylvania for academic excellence and student outcomes, according to Money Inc.

The ranking, published in Money Inc.’s list of the 30 Best School Districts in the United States, highlights Upper St. Clair as the only Pennsylvania district to make the national list.

Boyce and Fort Couch middle schools were named Pennsylvania Don Eichhorn Schools to Watch 2023. This marks the sixth time that the two Upper St. Clair schools have earned this honor – an accomplishment reached by only two other schools in Pennsylvania. Boyce and Fort Couch first earned Schools to Watch honors in 2008. The schools were re-designated as Schools To Watch in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023. 

Schools to Watch selection is based on a written application that requires schools to show how they meet criteria developed by the National Forum. Schools that appear to meet the criteria are then visited by state teams, which observe classrooms; interview administrators, teachers, students and parents; and look at achievement data, suspension rates, quality of lessons and student work.

In 2017, Upper St. Clair School District was selected as one of three national Grand Prize Winners in the 23rd annual Magna Awards program sponsored by the National School Boards Association’s magazine, American School Board Journal. Specifically, Upper St. Clair was recognized for its SHOP@USC program. The Magna Awards recognize school districts and their leaders for taking bold and innovative steps to improve the lives of their students and their communities.

SHOP@USC is a pioneering, student-run business, which operates fully through the collaboration between students with significant disabilities and their same age peers without disabilities. Within SHOP, students produce and sell greeting cards, business cards, signs/banners, laser-engraved items and USC spirit wear merchandise.

As the Grand Prize Winner in the under 5,000 students category, Upper St. Clair School District’s SHOP@USC program was highlighted in the April 2017 issue of the American School Board Journal magazine and received a $5,000 contribution. All 33 award-winning school districts were formally recognized during a special presentation at NSBA’s 77th Annual Conference, March 25-27, 2017, in Denver.

Including the SHOP@USC program, Upper St. Clair has earned a total of three Magna Awards. The High School’s therapeutic emotional support program was recognized in 2020 and the District's Student Leadership Academy, which helps students understand how they can change the world through their leadership, received the honor in 2013.

Upper St. Clair High School was selected as a WPIAL Sportsmanship Award winner for the 2020-2021 academic year. This marked the first year that Upper St. Clair has received this recognition since the award’s inception in 1996-1997. In its 25th year of existence, the purpose of the sportsmanship program is to promote sportsmanship in the schools and to reward those schools that best demonstrate the elements of good sportsmanship.