{"id":331923,"date":"2026-08-28T15:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331923\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:52:22","slug":"success-academy-sues-state-education-commissioner-over-lackluster-ranking-says-poor-data-sharing-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331923\/","title":{"rendered":"Success Academy sues State Education Commissioner over lackluster ranking, says poor data-sharing to blame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Success Academy<\/a>, the largest charter school network<\/a> in New York City, filed a lawsuit Thursday against state Education Department (NYSED) Commissioner Betty Rosa over the agency\u2019s decision not to authorize the College Board to release certain Advanced Placement (AP) data to the popular U.S. News and World Report for its annual high school rankings.<\/p>\n

The school alleged in its complaint that withholding this information, which had been used in previous years, resulted in a significant drop in its place on the influential \u201cBest High Schools in America\u201d list and violated the institution\u2019s First Amendment right to communicate \u201ctruthful, independently verified information about its students\u2019 academic performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, said that Success Academy demands excellence of its students and they deserve public recognition.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur scholars \u2014 most of whom are low-income, first generation \u2014 took demanding college-level courses, sat for nationally administered examinations, and produced extraordinary results,\u201d Moskowitz said in a statement. \u201cNYSED should not be allowed to prevent the public from seeing what they accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SuccessSuccess Academy students ahead of a new school opening.<\/p>\n

The NYSED said, in a statement shared with amNewYork about the decision, that it did not withhold publicly available AP data from U.S. News and that the media company requested private information, which raised legal concerns under student privacy laws.<\/p>\n

The statement added that NYSED did not consider the rankings a reflection of an individual school\u2019s value: \u201cA change in a school\u2019s ranking should therefore not be interpreted as a change in the quality of its students, educators, academic programs, or outcomes. At the same time, we understand that these rankings receive considerable public attention and that districts are understandably concerned about their impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also said that state officials would try to find a way to share data that would allow U.S. News to properly evaluate schools while protecting student data.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

But for this year, Success Academy said the impacts of not having its AP data included in U.S. News\u2019 analysis have been significant.\n<\/p>\n

Last year, Success Academy\u2019s High School for the Liberal Arts in Harlem ranked 11th in New York State, but this year, it dropped to 196th.\n<\/p>\n

U.S. News and World Report reports its methodology on its website, showing that \u201ccollege readiness\u201d and \u201ccollege curriculum breadth\u201d together make up about 40% of a school\u2019s score. These two scores are based on AP exams and International Baccalaureate exams, but as Success Academy does not take IB exams, its scoring for around 40% of U.S. News\u2019 assessment was weighted at zero. U.S. News and World Report published this disclaimer with its methodology page.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdjustments were made so that schools without APs and IBs would not score significantly worse than schools with very few APs and IBs even after the scores were standardized. In summary, not having any AP or IB exams was not enough alone for a school to be at the bottom of the rankings because of the adjustments and the significant number of high schools that did not administer these exams.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYSED spokesperson JP O\u2019Hare told amNewYork that the state agency was committed to transparency and open data, including AP participation data, available publicly online. He said the agency had not yet reviewed the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New York State Education Department (NYSED) does not comment on potential litigation, even when it is shared with the press before we have been served or otherwise notified,\u201d O\u2019Hare said. \u201cHowever, what we will say is that the Department takes its responsibility to protect student data seriously. Compliance with New York\u2019s student privacy laws is not optional, and it does not take a back seat to U.S. News & World Report\u2019s commercial ranking methodology, or any other desire to turn information about New York\u2019s children into a for-profit product.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare also noted that the state\u2019s AP participation data \u201cis collected to reflect student achievement in rigorous coursework, not to rank schools.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Success Academy believes that the commercial value of student information outweighs the State\u2019s responsibility to protect it, it is free to explain as much in a lawsuit. But NYSED does not share that perspective,\u201d O\u2019Hare added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Success Academy, the largest charter school network in New York City, filed a lawsuit Thursday against state Education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-331923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}