The Atlantic
(Editor’s note: BASIS is represented by Rose Law Group)
U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of the nation’s best high schools are out, and the results suggest students thrive when given access to curriculum and instruction that’s significantly more challenging than what a typical American student receives.
The top 15 campuses in the rankings include magnet schools, small campuses offering specialized programs, and charter schools. Two of the top five schools are part of the BASIS charter school network in Arizona, which offers an intensive curriculum designed to be comparable to international academic standards.
The news outlet’s formula for determining the best campuses is a combination of overall school performance on statewide proficiency tests, factoring in considerations for populations of disadvantaged students who typically score lower on such assessments. Schools that did well enough on those factors were then evaluated for “college readiness,” using student achievement on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams. (Because the data is self-reported by schools and states to a federal database, errors can occur — which was the case for a number of campuses in last year’s rankings.)
It’s important to note that the rankings are a snapshot of a school’s performance, rather than a definitive judgment. However, they do shine a light on campuses that are exceeding achievement benchmarks often with challenging student populations.
More than 21,000 high schools in 49 states (Nebraska didn’t report enough data to be considered) and the District of Columbia were evaluated. U.S. News awarded gold, silver or bronze medals to more than 4,805 top-performing schools. Just under 41 percent of the rankings’ gold-medal schools receive Title I federal funding, which is earmarked for campuses serving large populations of students of students from low-income households. California led the states with close to 28 percent of its high schools earning gold or silver medals, followed by Maryland with about 26 percent.
