New York State Decides Which Schools Get to Brag About Their Test Scores

There’s something deeply wrong when a government agency gets to pick and choose which schools can share their own students’ achievements. Success Academy, the largest charter school network in New York City, just filed a federal lawsuit that exposes exactly this kind of manipulation. And honestly, it’s about time someone called it out.

Here’s what happened. For years, U.S. News & World Report has compiled its high school rankings using data directly from the College Board, the folks who run AP exams. Schools across America participate in this process. Parents use these rankings to make informed decisions about their kids’ education. It’s straightforward, transparent, and nobody had a problem with it for decades.

Then this year, New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa decided to block it. Just like that. The state refused to authorize the College Board to release AP exam scores to U.S. News. No explanation that makes sense. No compelling state interest. Just a bureaucratic stone wall.

The result? Success Academy’s ranking plummeted from 11th to 196th in the state. Not because their students suddenly forgot how to learn. Not because their teachers stopped teaching. But because without AP data, U.S. News had to calculate rankings using only International Baccalaureate scores. Success Academy doesn’t offer IB programs. They offer AP courses, and their kids crush those exams.

We’re talking about a 95% pass rate for three or more AP exams among Success Academy’s 2026 graduating class. Compare that to the national average where fewer than 25% of high school graduates pass even one AP exam. These are kids in New York City, many from challenging backgrounds, outperforming students across the country. That’s the kind of success story that deserves celebration, not suppression.

Eric Grannis, the attorney representing Success Academy in this lawsuit (and husband of CEO Eva Moskowitz, full disclosure), put it plainly. “There’s no question that it’s a First Amendment violation because, essentially, a publication right is being prevented from reporting real news.” He’s right. This isn’t about protecting student privacy or maintaining academic integrity. The data exists. The College Board has it. The only question is whether the state can legally prevent its release.

The First Amendment doesn’t just protect political speech or newspapers criticizing the government. It protects the right to share truthful information. When Success Academy wants to tell parents and the public about how well their students perform, that’s protected speech. When a state bureaucrat blocks that communication, that’s censorship.

You know what makes this even more infuriating? The timing and the pattern. Charter schools have been outperforming traditional public schools in New York City for years, particularly in serving low-income students and students of color. Success Academy’s results threaten the narrative that only traditional public schools with their union protections and bloated bureaucracies can educate children properly.

This lawsuit alleges that NYSED obscured data to artificially inflate traditional public school rankings at the expense of high-performing charters. Think about that. The state education department, which is supposed to care about all students’ success, might be cooking the books to protect certain schools over others. That’s not education policy. That’s political manipulation masquerading as administration.

The free market of ideas works when parents have access to real information. School choice means nothing if families can’t compare schools based on actual performance data. Conservative principles have always championed transparency in government and empowering individuals with information to make their own decisions. This case embodies exactly that fight.

Limited government means government shouldn’t have the power to hide inconvenient truths. It means bureaucrats don’t get to decide which successes count and which get buried. Betty Rosa and NYSED overstepped, and they need to be held accountable.

Success Academy isn’t asking for special treatment. They’re asking for the same treatment every other school in America gets. They want their students’ achievements recognized. They want parents to have access to truthful data. They want the freedom to speak about their own performance without state censorship.

The outcome of this lawsuit matters far beyond New York. If states can suppress academic data that makes charter schools look good, what’s next? Can they block graduation rates? College acceptance numbers? Any metric that challenges the status quo becomes fair game for bureaucratic interference.

This is about more than rankings or bragging rights. It’s about whether government can silence speech it finds politically inconvenient. It’s about whether transparency in education is optional or mandatory. And it’s about whether we trust parents with information or trust bureaucrats to manage the narrative.

The answer should be obvious. Let the data speak. Let Success Academy share their students’ accomplishments. Let parents decide for themselves which schools serve children best. And let Commissioner Rosa explain in federal court why she thought hiding the truth served any legitimate government interest.

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