McLean High School is a public high school within the Fairfax County Public Schools in McLean, Virginia, United States. In 2024, U.S. News & World Report rated McLean the 218th-best U.S. public high school, and fifth-best in Virginia.
History Fairfax County Public Schools purchased a 22-acre tract for $32,443 for McLean High School on August 6, 1952. McLean High opened its doors on September 6, 1955, with an enrollment of 1,031 students from grades 8 through 11 with Principal Craighill S. Burks. At the time, McLean was the newest high school in Fairfax County, and the only high school located in McLean since the Franklin Sherman School, originally built in 1914, closed in the late 1930s. McLean High celebrated its 50th reunion in 2005.
The town of McLean received its name from John Roll McLean, an Ohio native who was the owner and publisher of The Washington Post and one of the founders of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. A railroad stop named after McLean was once located at the intersection of Old Dominion Drive and Chain Bridge Road, about a mile from the high school's current location. The McLean community combined two existing villages, Lewinsville and Langley.
Demographics In the 2023–24 school year, McLean High School had 2431 students (as of May 2024), and its student body was:
47.9% White 26.2% Asian/Pacific Islander 14.9% Hispanic 4.3% Black 6.3% two or more races
Due to the school's growing enrollment, which had increased by over 550 students since 2006, the Fairfax County School Board adopted a boundary change in February 2021 to move some of McLean's students to Langley High School, which received a significant expansion during the school's recent renovation. The boundary change is being phased in gradually and will not take full effect until the 2025–26 school year, when all students from the reassigned neighborhoods will be attending Langley. While FCPS relocated a temporary modular to the McLean campus in 2021, McLean remains one of FCPS' most overcrowded high schools, and FCPS has declined to fund a permanent addition to the school.
Curriculum McLean High School is a fully-accredited high school based on Virginia's Standards of Learning tests. The average SAT score for McLean's Class of 2024 was 1308 (including both Critical Reading and Writing and Math), the second-highest among Fairfax County's 25 high and secondary schools. In addition, the Classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024 at McLean had the second-highest number of National Merit Semifinalists of any high school in Fairfax County, behind only Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and the participation and success rates of McLean students on Advanced Placement exams typically are among the highest in Fairfax County Public Schools.
Extracurricular activities
Quiz Bowl McLean Quiz Bowl won the Class 6 VHSL State Championship in 2020 and 2024 and has finished as State Runners-Up in 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023. The team has had three top 50 finishes at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament finishing in 24th place in 2022 and 33rd in 2023. They also won the Washington DC Region It's Academic championship in 2022 and 2023.It’s Academic TV ScheduleIt's Academic
The Highlander McLean also has an award-winning newspaper, The Highlander. In 2006, it was inducted into the high school newspaper Hall of Fame after ten consecutive years of being an "All American". Since the paper's first publication, it has gone from a newspaper format to a news magazine format. In 2012, the newspaper also launched a website publication, The Highlander Online.
In 2017, The Highlander was one of 49 high school publications nationwide to be named a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker Award. In 2020, The Highlander was one of 28 high school publications nationwide to be a finalist for the Pacemaker Award, and the student newspaper was one of 65 finalists for the Pacemaker Award in 2021. In 2019, The Highlander was a finalist for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Crown Award for student journalism. Individual articles that have received recognition have addressed topics such as refugees in Northern Virginia, gender identity, and student-athletes with concussions.
Yearbook The Clan was the original name of McLean's award-winning yearbook. In 2004, The Clan was inducted into the National Scholastic Press Association Hall of Fame after ten years of consecutively being "All American". The yearbook's name was changed to Caledonia in 2019.
Music programs In 2024, McLean High School received the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Blue Ribbon Award, which "recognizes achieved excellence in Band, Orchestra, and Choral Performance." McLean High School also regularly sends students to All-Virginia band, orchestra, and choir ensembles.
Band McLean's band program is currently conducted by Chris Weise, who took over the direction of the band at the beginning of the 2008–2009 school year. Under Weise, McLean received the Sudler Flag of Honor, an award granted by the John Philip Sousa Foundation for consistent superior musical performance, in 2018, one of only seven bands in the country that have earned the award twice.
Mclean's concert band program is divided into three main ensembles: the Concert Band, the Wind Ensemble, and the Symphonic Band (the school's premiere band). McLean also has two jazz bands, the Jazz Workshop and Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Scott Weinhold. The Chamber Winds/Ensemble program at the school is led by Deidra Denson, and performs at national competitions, including Music For All's 2018 Chamber Music Festival in Indianapolis. McLean High School also has a marching band. The McLean Highlander Marching Band, headed by Weise, has won numerous awards and titles. In 2016, 2017, 2023, and 2024, the band won the USBands Virginia State Championship.
Choir Linda Martin conducts McLean's choral program. Under Martin, the McLean chorus was ranked 9th in the nation in 2009, as the only non-performing arts school in the top 10. The program consists of four choruses: Treble (women), Bass (men), Armonia (women), and Madrigals (mixed).
Orchestra McLean High School alum Starlet Smith conducts the McLean Orchestra program. It consists of five orchestras: Concert, Symphonic, Sinfonia, Chamber and Philharmonic. McLean belongs to District XII of the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association. The McLean High School Philharmonic Orchestra has participated in a musical exchange program with a sister school, Grabbe Gymnasium, in Detmold, Germany for over 20 years. In alternating years, musicians from the Grabbe Gymnasium travel to McLean and collaborate on a joint concert with McLean's Philharmonic Orchestra, while McLean Philharmonic musicians travel to Detmold for a similar experience with their German counterparts.
Athletics
The school plays in the Liberty District and the Group 6A North Region. Their mascot is the Highlander, a soldier in a Scottish regiment from the Highlands. Their primary rival school is Langley High School, which is also in McLean. Other rival schools include Marshall High School in Falls Church, Madison High School in Vienna, and Yorktown High School in Arlington.
Baseball The Highlanders baseball team has captured multiple district titles and participated in regional playoffs. From 2006 to 2012, they were coached by John Thomas (MHS '96, Virginia '00) and compiled a 60–31 record and district and regional playoff berths yearly. In 2009 the Highlanders captured the Liberty District regular season and tournament titles. The Highlanders ended the season with a 1–0 loss to Centreville High School in the first round of the region tournament. In 2010, the Highlanders repeated as regular-season champions and compiled a 17–3 record, 13–1 in the district, and finished 19–5. The Highlanders entered the 2010 season ranked No. 1 by the Northern Region coaches poll and held the rank for the entire season. The Washington Post ranked McLean as the 2nd best team in the entire season of the Northern Virginia/Southern Maryland/DC metro area. The Highlanders failed to win the District, falling to James Madison High School in the title game. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the Northern Region Tournament, where they lost 13–10 to Oakton High School.
In 2014, under new head coach John Dowling, the Highlanders were the Region 6A North runner-up to Chantilly High School, qualifying for the state tournament for the first time in the school's history. In 2019, Dowling's baseball team won the Liberty District championship by defeating Yorktown High School. The team repeated as Liberty District champions in 2022. In 2024, the McLean baseball team, still under Dowling, won the VHSL Class 6 state title, defeating South Lakes High School 15–5 in the championship game. The team repeated as Liberty District champions in 2025.
Basketball The Highlanders boys basketball team is coached by Mike O'Brien, and previously was coached by Kevin Roller, who compiled an 82–69 record over six seasons. In the 2011–12 season, under Roller, the Highlander boys won the Liberty District in a double-overtime victory over Fairfax High School. That team finished 24–4, after beating Centreville High School and Lake Braddock Secondary School in the first two rounds of the regional tournament before falling to eventual regional champion Westfield High School in the semifinals. The team had another winning season under Roller in 2012–13, finishing the year as the district runner-up and again making it to the regional playoffs.
In the 2018–19 season, one of O'Brien's four winning seasons since taking over in 2013, the boys compiled a 17–10 record and finished tied for second in the Liberty District behind South Lakes High School. During the regional playoffs, led by Maine commit Matias Prock, the Highlanders defeated Oakton High School, for their first regional win since 2012, before falling to Patriot High School. The boys' team also had winning seasons in 2022-23 and 2023–24, finishing tied for third in the Liberty District each year. In the 2024–25 season, the boys' team finished fourth in the Liberty District during the regular season, but upset three higher seeded opponents (Langley, Yorktown, and Marshall) during the district tournament to win the Liberty District title, the team's first district title since 2011–12.
The Highlanders girls' basketball team was coached by Jen Sobota from 2013 to 2023 and has enjoyed more success than the boys' team in recent years. The girls' team defeated South Lakes High School to win the Liberty District championship in 2018–19, compiling an 18–7 record. District and region player-of-the-year Elizabeth Dufrane became McLean's all-time leading scorer in the 2019–20 season, in which the girls' team finished 17-10 and defeated Oakton in the regional playoffs before falling to state co-champion Madison High School in the semifinals. The new scoring record by Dufrane now sits at 1,563 points, breaking the school's previous record of 1,306. The girls' basketball team also won the Liberty District championship again in 2022–23, defeating rival Langley High School in the district championship. Longtime area basketball coach Pat Deegan took over as the head of the girls' program in the fall of 2023. In Deegan's first year as coach, the McLean girls again won the 2023-24 Liberty District title, once more defeating rival Langley in the championship game.
Crew