Pearl River High School Is Among 2022's Best: U.S. News

PEARL RIVER, NY — Pearl River High School is among the best, according to a new national ranking by U.S. News and World Report. This year's list of best high schools evaluated more than 17,800 schools nationwide, including 25 in the Hudson Valley.

The 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 Best High Schools rankings editions increased the number of ranked schools more than sixfold compared with previous editions, and assessed schools using far more comprehensive criteria.

U.S. News has published annual editions of Best High Schools rankings between 2007-09 and 2012-21. However, because U.S. News completely revamped its methodology in 2019, rankings from earlier editions are not comparable to those since.

This year's schools were ranked on six measures: college readiness, college curriculum breadth, state assessment performance, state assessment proficiency, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance and graduation rates.

The data used in this year's ranking is from the 2019-20 academic school year. U.S. 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 starting in March 2020 — typically just before most states conduct assessments — the U.S. Department of Education granted waivers allowing all states to forgo state testing for the 2019-20 school year.

To account for this, U.S. News relied on past assessment data from the three prior ranking years. Researchers also incorporated state science assessment data from the 2018-19 school year.

Read more about the Best High Schools methodology.

Pearl River High School was ranked No. 977. Here's what the magazine said:

Pearl River High School is ranked 98th within New York. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement® coursework and exams. The AP® participation rate at Pearl River High School is 64%. The total minority enrollment is 23%, and 14% of students are economically disadvantaged.

If you'd like to take a deep dive: in addition to the national rankings, U.S. News also published rankings at the state, metro area and school district levels. Only metro areas and school districts with three or more high schools were included in these subrankings.