Success Academy, New York City’s largest charter school network, has filed a federal lawsuit against the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and Commissioner Betty A. Rosa. The network alleges that the state’s refusal to authorize the College Board to release Advanced Placement (AP) exam results to U.S. News & World Report for its high school rankings constitutes a violation of its First Amendment rights.
According to the lawsuit, U.S. News & World Report uses academic criteria, including student participation and performance on AP exams, to compile its national high school rankings. For decades, this data has been provided to the publication by the College Board. However, this year, NYSED decided not to allow the College Board to release the 2026 AP scores for New York public schools.
Eric Grannis, an attorney representing Success Academy, stated that this action prevents a publication right from reporting what he called "real news." He argued that the state’s decision infringes upon Success Academy’s ability to communicate truthful, independently verified information about its students’ academic achievements.
As a result of NYSED's decision, U.S. News & World Report calculated its advanced course metrics using only International Baccalaureate (IB) data. Because Success Academy primarily offers AP courses, it received no credit for 40% of the weighted criteria in the rankings. This led to the network’s statewide ranking plummeting from 11th to 196th.
Success Academy, founded in 2006, serves over 22,000 predominantly low-income Black and Hispanic students across New York City. The lawsuit contends that NYSED's policy is obscuring data to artificially boost the rankings of traditional public schools at the expense of high-performing charter schools. The network highlighted that while less than 25% of high school graduates nationally pass an AP exam, 95% of Success Academy’s 2026 graduating class passed three or more AP exams.
NYSED has defended its position by citing student data privacy laws, asserting that student information should not be commercialized for ranking purposes. Grannis, however, countered that commercial restrictions on educational reporting set a dangerous precedent, noting that major news outlets are also commercial entities but still protected by the First Amendment. He suggested that the commissioner's stance could allow for the suppression of reporting on any student data if deemed commercial.
Grannis also alleged that NYSED's decisions are influenced by traditional public school interests and teachers unions, which he claims oppose accountability and public information about student performance, particularly when it highlights the success of charter schools compared to unionized district schools.
Success Academy has a history of conflict with teachers unions, often related to co-locations in public school buildings and financial competition for per-pupil funding. The lawsuit suggests that the state's move to suppress score releases aligns with a broader policy against standardized metrics, which Success Academy characterizes as a move toward "less teaching, less accountability" by hiding the failures of district schools.