16 Public Charter Schools Rank in Top 100 U.S. High Schools

Despite being educating only 3% of all schoolchildren (and, I suspect, an even lower % of high school students), charter schools took 16 of the top 100 (including two I'm familiar with: KIPP Houston HS and YES Prep Southeast) and two of the top 10 spots in US News & World Report's list of the top 100 high schools in the U.S. – see: www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-top-charter-schools.html

 

16 Public Charter Schools Rank in Top 100 U.S. High Schools

U.S. News and World Report Results Show Charters Above 5.5% Share of All High Schools

Washington, D.C. - Sixteen public charter schools rank in the country's top 100 high schools, according to an annual survey released today by U.S. News and World Report. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools reports that charter high schools represent 5.5% of the nation's high schools and enroll about 586,434 students in grades 9-12 while traditional district schools enroll 15,773,663.

"High-quality public charter schools are consistently over-represented in rankings of top American high schools showing that the charter model of innovation and accountability works," said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nelson Smith. "The Alliance congratulates the charter school communities that have earned this designation through a relentless focus on quality and success."

The 16 charter schools making the America's Best High Schools: Top 100 list and their rankings are:

·         Pacific Collegiate Charter - Santa Cruz, CA (7)

·         BASIS Tucson - Tucson, AZ (9)

·         IDEA Quest Academy and College Preparatory - Donna, TX (13)

·         KIPP Houston High School Houston, TX (16)

·         Animo Leadership High - Inglewood, CA (23)

·         Raleigh Charter High - Raleigh, NC (24)

·         Lennox Mathematics Science and Technology Academy - Lennox, CA (25)

·         Ben Franklin Senior High - New Orleans, LA (27)

·         Preuss School UCSD - La Jolla, CA (32)

·         Charter School of Wilmington - Wilmington, DE (49)

·         Signature School - Evansville, IN (53)

·         Hawthorne Math and Science Academy - Hawthorne, CA (54)

·         YES College Prep - Houston, TX (68)

·         Peak to Peak Charter School - Lafayette, CO (76)

·         Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy - Kootenai County, ID (79)

·         Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts Fort Worth, TX (91)

The survey's methodology analyzed data from the 2007-2008 school year for 21,786 public high schools in 48 states using a three-step process based on student achievement, improvement-over-time measured by state proficiency standards and the schools' success in preparing students for college-level work.