Washington D.C. – U.S. News & World Report today released its annual rankings of the best public high schools in the country and again public charter schools are leading the way. Seven of the ranking’s top ten schools are charter schools. Retaining the three top spots are Arizona’s BASIS Scottsdale, followed by BASIS Chandler and BASIS Oro Valley. Although charter high schools are just 10% of the country’s 26,000 public high schools, they comprise 35% of the top 100 public schools, providing an excellent education to thousands of students in grades 9-12.
U.S. News’s Best High Schools rankings take into consideration data such as performance on state assessments, enrollment, graduation rates, diversity, the number of students who participate in free and reduced-price lunch programs, and Advanced Placement / International Baccalaureate participation and test results.
National Alliance President and CEO Nina Rees has released the following statement:
“In this midst of National Charter Schools Week, this new data further validates the tremendous work charter schools are doing on behalf of their students nationwide. We are excited to see so many charter schools recognized for their outstanding performance on critical metrics such as graduation and college readiness, and gratified that an ever-growing number of families have high-quality public school options that meet the unique needs of their children. We congratulate all of the schools recognized on the U.S. News Best High School rankings.”
About Public Charter Schools Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, many research studies have found that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit www.publiccharters.org.
