A revamped edition of the U.S. News and World Report’s best high school rankings have Pleasant Valley and Palmerton leading the way locally.

Released earlier this week, more than 17,000 schools nationwide were taken into consideration, up from last year’s 2,700 schools.

Pleasant Valley was the top scoring local school, earning a 72.8 out of 100 and ranking 186th in the state.

“We have great students, teachers, school counselors, school police officers, secretaries, security officers, custodians, maintenance staff, cafeteria staff, paraprofessionals and monitors at Pleasant Valley that work their tails off,” Matthew Triolo, Pleasant Valley High School principal said. “Everyone’s role is integral to our success.”

Triolo called the top 200 ranking a great achievement, but promised the work wouldn’t stop there.

“We will never stop doing the best job we can to make Pleasant Valley High School the best school it can be for our students,” he said.

“Our goal is to provide them with the best possible education we can that makes them career ready and prepared to take on their next challenge in life. We believe at Pleasant Valley that hard work breeds success.”

The rankings look at six factors, according to U.S. News and World Report, including college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.

“Our mission with the rankings has always been to educate families about the schools in their district,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News.

“By evaluating more schools than ever before, the new edition expands that focus so all communities can see which schools in their area are successfully serving their students — including historically underserved populations.”

The new methodology assigns weights to the six factors and then produces an overall score on which the ranking is based.

Previously, the method involved a four-step process in which the final step used college readiness as the sole basis to determine a school’s numerical rank.

“We enhanced the methodology to provide an even more comprehensive ranking that is easier to understand and, therefore, more useful to parents and educators,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News.

“Now, each school’s score correlates to its national percentile — a school with a score of 70 is in the 70th percentile and ranks higher than 70 percent of schools. Going forward, this methodology will allow for intuitive comparisons of a school’s performance year after year.”

Following Pleasant Valley in the local rankings were Palmerton (68.02, 225th in the state), Lehighton (57.5, 297th in the state), Tamaqua (57.17, 300th in the state), Weatherly (53.71, 323rd in the state), Carbon Career and Technical Institute (40.87, 414th in the state), Jim Thorpe (40.7, 415th in the state), Panther Valley (27.95, 497th in the state) and Northern Lehigh (no score, ranked between 516 and 673 in the state).

Texas has three schools in the top 20, the most of any state, followed by Arizona and California with two each. The top 10 schools overall represent 10 different states.

The Best High Schools rankings are available on usnews.com and include data on a variety of factors, such as enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price lunch programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessments.

U.S. News worked with RTI International, a global research firm, to implement the comprehensive ranking methodology.

U.S. News and World Report Best High School Rankings

Pleasant Valley (72.81 out of 100)

Ranked 186th in Pennsylvania

Palmerton (68.02 out of 100)

Ranked 225th in Pennsylvania

Lehighton (57.5 out of 100)

Ranked 297 in Pennsylvania

Tamaqua (57.17 out of 100)

Ranked 300th in Pennsylvania

Weatherly (53.71 out of 100)

Ranked 323rd in Pennsylvania

Carbon Career and Technical Institute (40.87 out of 100)

Ranked 414th in Pennsylvania

Jim Thorpe (40.7 out of 100)

Ranked 415th in Pennsylvania

Panther Valley (27.95 out of 100)

Ranked 497th in Pennsylvania

Northern Lehigh (no score)

Ranked between 516 and 673 in Pennsylvania