Buffalo Business First has ranked Potsdam Central School as the best-performing district in the North Country.

The Buffalo edition of Business First magazine rated the academic performance of students in schools with over 260 students all over upstate. In the St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Lewis county region, Potsdam came out on top among the 33 districts rated.

The next schools on the list were Beaver River, Canton, Thousand Islands and Parishville-Hopkinton. At the bottom were Watertown, Brasher Falls and Edwards-Knox schools.

The rankings were calculated with four years of test data from the New York State Education Department.

The tests used included standard exams for third graders in English and math and the Regents exams for high schoolers.

The rankings of all 33 districts is as follows:

• 1. Potsdam (St. Lawrence County)

• 2. Beaver River (Lewis County)

• 3. Canton (St. Lawrence County)

• 4. Thousand Islands (Jefferson County)

• 5. Parishville-Hopkinton (St. Lawrence County)

• 6. Sackets Harbor (Jefferson County)

• 7. Colton-Pierrepont (St. Lawrence County)

• 8. General Brown (Jefferson County)

• 9. Lowville Academy (Lewis County)

• 10. Copenhagen (Lewis County)

• 11. Alexandria (Jefferson County)

• 12. South Jefferson (Jefferson County)

• 13. Lyme (Jefferson County)

• 14. Norwood-Norfolk (St. Lawrence County)

• 15. Belleville Henderson (Jefferson County)

• 16. Massena (St. Lawrence County)

• 17. Ogdensburg (St. Lawrence County)

• 18. Clifton-Fine (St. Lawrence County)

• 19. Hermon-DeKalb (St. Lawrence County)

• 20. Carthage (Jefferson County)

• 21. South Lewis (Lewis County)

• 22. Harrisville (Lewis County)

• 23. Lisbon (St. Lawrence County)

• 24. Morristown (St. Lawrence County)

• 25. Gouverneur (St. Lawrence County)

• 26. LaFargeville (Jefferson County)

• 27. Madrid-Waddington (St. Lawrence County)

• 28. Hammond (St. Lawrence County)

• 29. Indian River (Jefferson County)

• 30. Heuvelton (St. Lawrence County)

• 31. Watertown (Jefferson County)

• 32. Edwards-Knox (St. Lawrence County)

• 33. Brasher Falls (St. Lawrence County)

The magazine’s web page at http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/feature/2012-watertown-area-school-district.html includes the article and links to the methodology and rankings in other regions of the state.