Public Charter High Schools Measure Up on National Ranking Lists

As a nation, we sure do love a rankings list. Three major news outlets annually rank public high schools: US News & World Report, the Washington Post, and Newsweek. Even though public charter high schools make up only 6% of the total number of public high schools nationwide, they are well represented on each of the lists of the best high schools nationwide.

In case you missed the lists this year, in the table below, we list the charter schools that made it onto at least one of the lists (in the top 100 for the first three). Six charter schools were listed in the top 100 on all three major lists: BASIS Tucson, Pacific Collegiate Charter, Preuss School UCSD, Signature School, Sturgis Charter Public, and Westlake Academy.

Charter schools make up 17 percent of the top 100 schools on the US News & World Report’s Best High Schools list, 25 percent of the top 100 schools on the Washington Post’s High School Challenge Index list, 19 percent of the top 100 schools on Newsweek’s America’s Best High Schools list, and 60 percent of the top 25 schools on Newsweek’s Transformative High Schools list.

As the charter sector convenes in Minneapolis to celebrate its 20th Anniversary and highlight exemplary practices in the field, let’s commend these high quality charter high schools and continue the hard work to improve student learning. 

Ranking Lists’ Methodology:

US News & World Report: Schools were ranked on the following requirements: a) School has 12th grade enrollment; b) School has sufficient performance data from 2009-10; c) All students in school perform better than statistically expected for average student in state; d) Students in subgroups (Black, Hispanic, low-income) perform better than average for similar students in state; e) College readiness index, based on the school's AP or IB participation rate (the number of 12th-grade students in the 2009-2010 academic year who took at least one AP or IB test before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders) and how well the students did on those tests.

Washington Post: The number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school gave in 2010 is divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Newsweek, America’s Best High Schools: Self-reported survey results by principals and superintendents (2,300 schools submitted). Rankings based on the following categories (weight in parentheses): a) Four-year, on-time graduation rate (25%); Percent of 2011 graduates accepted to college (25%); AP/IB/AICE tests per student (25%); Average SAT and/or ACT score (10%); Average AP/IB/AICE exam score (10%); AP/IB/AICE courses offered per student (5%).

Newsweek, Transformative High Schools: Same methodology as above, but rankings also take into account: a) Percentage of students who qualified for free- or reduced-price lunches; and b) Schools that restrict admissions based on academics were ineligible.