PEARL RIVER, NY – Pearl River High School is among the best, according to a new national ranking by US News and World Report. This year’s Best High Schools list rated more than 17,800 schools nationwide, including 25 in the Hudson Valley.
The 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 editions of the Best Secondary Schools Rankings increased the number of schools ranked more than sixfold over previous editions and evaluated schools using much more comprehensive criteria.
US News published annual editions of the best high school rankings between 2007-09 and 2012-21. However, because US News completely overhauled its methodology in 2019, rankings from previous editions are not comparable to those since.
This year’s schools were ranked on six measures: college readiness, breadth of college curriculum, state assessment performance, state assessment proficiency, reading and math proficiency, performance in reading and math, performance of underserved students, and graduation rates.
The data used in this year’s ranking comes from the 2019-2020 school year. US News adjusted its calculation of these measures to account for the impact COVID-19 had on schools that year.
Since most states closed schools for in-person instruction beginning in March 2020 — typically just before most states would conduct assessments — the U.S. Department of Education has granted waivers allowing all states to waive state testing for the 2019-2020 school year.
To account for this, US News relied on past rating data from the previous three rating years. The researchers also incorporated state science assessment data from the 2018-2019 school year.
Pearl River High School is ranked 98th in New York City. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement® courses and exams. The AP® attendance rate at Pearl River High School is 64%. Total minority enrollment is 23% and 14% of students are economically disadvantaged.
If you want to dig deeper: In addition to national rankings, US News has also published rankings at the state, metro area, and school district level. Only metropolitan areas and school districts with three or more high schools were included in these sub-rankings.