Strike three.

The city teachers union appears to be out of legal options to squelch the release of individual instructor ratings, after the state’s highest court yesterday dismissed its latest bid.

The Court of Appeals’ rejection of the union’s motion means the ratings could be made public as early as next week, according to the city Department of Education.

Two lower courts have also sided with the city.

The release of the data would end an 18-month battle that began when The Post filed a Freedom of Information Act request in August 2010 seeking the ratings, which name more than 12,000 individual teachers.

Other news organizations also filed requests to see the data, which at the time ranked all math and English teachers in grades 4 through 8 based on their students’ improvement — or lack of it — on state tests in 2008-09.

Since then, data for 2009-10 has also become available, officials said.

The United Federation of Teachers filed suit in October 2010 based on the privacy rights of its members and on the alleged inaccuracy of the data.

But DOE officials argued that the public has a right to know how teachers are doing — especially the best and the worst of the lot.

UFT chief Michael Mulgrew said the teacher ratings “are not an accurate reflection of the work of any teacher.”