NEW YORK – A New York City public high school has ranked 12th on a list of the nation's best.

U.S. News & World Report placed Flushing's Townsend Harris High School among the top of its list of more than 17,000 ranked this year that was released Tuesday. Another 481 New York City high schools made the list.

Townsend Harris improved on a 46th place ranking on the list in 2018. The school had 1,132 students that year, with 78 percent of them coming from minorities. Other area schools ranked highly on the list include:

U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard for education rankings and is widely considered the global authority. Anita Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said the aim of the rankings is to give families more information about the schools in their district.

"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," Narayan said in a news release.

The factors considered in compiling the list include college readiness; reading and math proficiency; reading and math performance; underserved student performance; college curriculum breadth; and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on advanced placement and international baccalaureate exams. The data also take into account school enrollment, student diversity, participation in free and reduced-price meal programs, graduation rates and the results of state assessment tests. U.S. News worked with the global research firm RTI International to rank the schools.