All USC elementary & middle schools named Best in Pa.
Nov. 16, 2023
All USC elementary & middle schools named Best in Pa.
Boyce Middle School ranks No. 3 and Fort Couch Middle School ranks No. 5 among Pennsylvania’s 1,272 public middle schools. They are the highest ranked middle schools in the Pittsburgh region and two of only three in the region to break the top 10.
Among Pennsylvania’s 1,860 public elementary schools, Eisenhower Elementary ranks No. 6; Baker Elementary is No. 26; and Streams Elementary posts No. 32.
“The 2024 Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings offer a way for parents to get a snapshot of their child's school and how well it's doing within its community,” LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News, said. “Easily accessible data on student-teacher ratio, district spending, and the number of school counselors available at the school can keep parents informed and involved.”
The methodology for the rankings focused on state assessments of students who were proficient or advanced in mathematics and reading/language arts while accounting for student backgrounds, achievement in core subjects, and how well schools are educating their students. Student-teacher ratios are applied to break ties in the overall score.
The 2024 Best Elementary and Best Middle Schools rankings are based on publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education. The state assessment data used in the rankings are from the 2020-21 school year – the first school year that followed the disruption in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While U.S. News & World Report has been ranking high schools since 2007, this marks only the second time that rankings have extended to elementary and middle schools. The first was in October 2021. In 2022, U.S. News did not update any of its elementary and middle school rankings because the 2019-20 academic year had been so disrupted that assessment data was unavailable.
