Earlier this month, U.S. News & World Report released its “Best 2026 K-8 Schools Rankings,” naming all four Lapeer Community Schools elementary buildings as best of the best across Michigan.
Murphy (No. 347), Turrill (No. 454), Schickler (No. 457) and Lynch (No. 530) all earned recognition in the annual rankings.
In addition, Zemmer comes in at No. 310 and Rolland-Warner is ranked No. 465 among Michigan middle schools and in the high school category, Lapeer High School is 146th in Michigan.
Nearly 47,000 elementary schools and more than 23,000 middle schools are ranked in the 2026 Best K-8 Schools rankings across the country. More than 24,000 U.S. public high schools were reviewed for the rankings with 682 Michigan schools making the list.
Matt Wandrie, superintendent of Lapeer Community Schools, said the rankings are symbolic of the district’s approach to making maximum impact across all levels of education.
“We are proud to be recognized among the top schools in Michigan,” Wandrie said. “This ranking reflects the hard work of our students, the dedication of our teachers and staff, and the strong support of our community. We will continue to strive for excellence and build on this achievement.”
Michelle Bradford, LCS assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, is also thrilled seeing the elementary schools recognized.
“We’re absolutely thrilled by this recognition,” said Bradford. “It’s a testament to the incredible effort our students, teachers, and staff put in every single day. These rankings show that our commitment to excellence is paying off, and we couldn’t be prouder of our entire school community.”
Schools are ranked at state and district levels; there's no national ranking. The ranking factors are weighted 25% each for math proficiency, math performance, reading proficiency and reading performance.
In total, 46,998 elementary schools and 23,328 middle schools were ranked. Added to the 17,908 public high schools ranked for 2025-26, U.S. News & World Report has assigned 88,234 state ranks for elementary, middle and high schools. The K-12 directory lists 127,538 schools: 105,193 public schools and 22,345 private schools.
The rankings use the same methodology for all included grade levels. For each state, schools were assessed on their shares of students proficient or above proficient in their reading/language arts and math state assessments. Half of the formula assessed just the scores and the other half incorporated the test results in the context of socioeconomic demographics.
In sum, the top-ranked schools are high-achieving and have succeeded at educating all their students.
The elementary and middle school rankings are based on publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education, most of which came from the department's Common Core of Data. For district-level rankings, at least two of the top-performing schools must rank in the top 75% of the overall elementary or middle school rankings to qualify for recognition.
For more information, visit the official LCS website and the U.S. News and World Report website.