U.S. News & World Report rankings: Long Island elementary, middle schools among best in NYS

Lakeville Elementary School in Great Neck and Jericho Middle School have for the second year led Long Island schools, as 17 local schools were among the state's top 50 public schools in their respective categories, according to U.S. News & World Report.

No Island school cracked the state's top 10 in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings released Tuesday.

The top 10 schools in both categories were in New York City. The No.1 elementary school was P.S. 77 Lower Lab School in Manhattan, and the highest-ranked middle schools were tied among South Bronx Classical Charter School, South Bronx Classical Charter School III and Success Academy Charter School-Far Rockaway.

On the Island, the schools that made the top 50 remained largely the same from last year’s rankings. Lakeville Elementary was ranked 12th and Jericho Middle took 24th place in the state this year.

Great Neck schools Superintendent Kenneth R. Bossert said in a statement, "We’re proud that our schools continue to be recognized for academic excellence. These rankings reflect the collective commitment of our educators, families, residents and Board of Education to provide outstanding programs and support our students at every level."

Jericho Middle Principal Chad Gleason said Wednesday that while it was nice to be recognized, "It doesn't change a whole lot of what we do day to day."

He added, “We have an awesome team here, from dedicated staff [to] amazing students. In terms of teachers, I’ve never worked with a more thoughtful or hardworking group of educators, and their commitment to kids is what drives the success here.”

All three of Jericho’s elementary schools made the top 50. So did North Side School (#17) in East Williston, West Side School (#21) in Cold Spring Harbor, Denton Avenue School (#43) in Herricks and Glenwood Landing Elementary School (#48) in the North Shore district.

In the middle school category, Great Neck South Middle School was ranked 34th, Manhasset Middle School was 35th, North Shore Middle School in the North Shore district was 37th and The Wheatley School in East Williston was 40th. Herricks Middle School was 43rd, Willets Road School in East Williston was 44th, P.J. Gelinas Junior High School (now known as P.J. Gelinas Middle School) in Three Village was 45th and H. B. Thompson Middle School in Syosset was 47th.

Rankings questioned

U.S. News has been ranking schools since 1983 and is most notable for its lists of best colleges. It didn’t begin publishing rankings of elementary and middle schools until 2021.

School rankings have long been controversial, as critics questioned the metrics used to determine the results.

“What is the best? How do we define it?” said Xiao-lei Wang, dean of Adelphi University's Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences. “Is it only defined by academic achievement?”

The rankings of the elementary and middle schools are based “almost exclusively” on state assessments of English and math, according to U.S. News' methodology. Its high school rankings also considered schools' graduation rates and college-level exams.

Wang said the metrics for the latest ranking, which were based on two subject areas of achievement, are narrow and reflect only “partial information” on what a school can offer.

“When parents look at this whole ranking, they should look at it as one piece of a big puzzle,” she said. “There are many pieces of the puzzle and academic achievement is only one part of it.”

The other pieces could be the athletic programs or extracurricular activities the school offers. Wang said parents may also consider student diversity and whether the school culture is a good fit for their child.

“That actually helps a child to later on interact or cope with the reality better than you just [going] to one kind of school where you have one kind of student,” she said.

Kris DeFilippis, a clinical assistant professor at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, said parents could also speak to school leaders or take a tour, which would offer them more information points to consider than just the rankings.

“A school visit is something that I think is probably the most telling,” DeFilippis said. “When you walk into a school … you can almost feel it in the air that this is a school that is really student-focused.” 

LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News, said in a news release, “These rankings offer communities and families valuable insights into schools dedicated to preparing students for future success."

Thousands of schools reviewed

For its elementary and middle school rankings this year, the news magazine said it looked at about 47,000 public elementary schools and more than 23,000 middle schools nationwide.

There’s no national ranking for elementary and middle schools as states administer different tests with these students, making comparison across states impossible. The outlet earlier this year released its high school rankings, in which Jericho High School made the top 10 in New York.

The 2026 rankings were based on math results from 2022-23 and the English results from 2021-22, due to unavailable data from the more recent school years, according to the methodology. 

U.S. News used math and reading proficiencies from state standardized tests but in its models also weighted for students from low-income families and those from “historically underserved ethnicities,” namely Latino, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students, according to its methodology.