Merion Elementary ranks fourth in Pennsylvania

Merion Elementary School placed fourth in Pennsylvania in U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 Best Elementary Schools rankings, released Oct. 20, 2026.

The Merion Station school scored 99.81 out of 100 in its U.S. News profile. Penn Valley School, listed in Narberth, placed eighth.

The six ranked Lower Merion School District elementary schools all placed in Pennsylvania’s top 50, according to the U.S. News profiles: Merion at No. 4, Penn Valley at No. 8, Penn Wynne at No. 16, Gladwyne at No. 24, Belmont Hills at No. 27 and Cynwyd at No. 44.

The district operates six elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools, according to its website.

How the rankings work

U.S. News ranks public elementary and middle schools within states and districts rather than producing a single national ranking for those grade levels.

The publisher’s Oct. 20 announcement says the 2027 edition covers nearly 47,000 public elementary schools and more than 24,000 middle schools. Its updated approach incorporates assessment data collected directly from state education agencies by RTI International, alongside U.S. Department of Education information.

The method considers achievement in mathematics and reading/language arts, including results across reported proficiency levels, together with students’ demographic backgrounds. Student-teacher ratios break ties in overall scores, the publisher says.

The rankings offer one view of academic performance based on the measures included in the formula; they are not a comprehensive assessment of every aspect of a school.

Pennsylvania’s top 10 public elementary schools

The U.S. News Pennsylvania rankings page lists these top 10 elementary schools in its 2027 edition:

Photo: Ifly6 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photograph dated September 2012; no edits to the source file.