BARTOW — The Polk Education Foundation has been named as a top-tier K-12 education foundation in an annual ranking by The Caruthers Institute.

The study ranks foundations in the nation’s 200 largest school districts. The 2017 study included 191 K-12 education foundations from 219 school districts.

When compared to all foundations nationwide, Polk ranks 21. The Pinellas Education Foundation was ranked No. 1.

Eight key performance categories are used to determine the ranking: annual revenues, revenues per student, total assets, assets per student, investment income, total program expenses, expenses per student, and volunteers.

For study purposes, foundations are placed into four divisions based on revenues. The Polk foundation is in division 1 with revenues of $2.3 million, but the 21st place ranking was based on 2015 revenues of slightly more than $2 million.