Success Academy Sues New York Education Commissioner Over State’s Suppression of AP Performance Data
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — August 27, 2026
Contact:
Rebecca Zisholtz; 973-280-7582
Ann Powell; 347-432-7482
Success Academy Sues New York Education Commissioner Over State’s Suppression of AP Performance Data
The lawsuit alleges that State Education Department’s new policy violates the First Amendment, preventing Success Academy from communicating independently verified information about its students’ academic performance
NEW YORK, N.Y., August 27, 2026 — Success Academy, NYC’s largest charter school network, today filed a federal lawsuit against New York State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa, challenging the State Education Department’s concealment of New York schools’ Advanced Placement results from the U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News).
The lawsuit alleges that New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) new policy violates the First Amendment by preventing Success Academy from communicating truthful, independently verified information about its students’ academic performance through the College Board—the organization that administers the college-level AP examinations and the authoritative source upon which U.S. News relies in compiling its annual rankings of K-12 schools across the country.
The consequences have been dramatic.
Last year, when NYSED allowed the College Board to provide AP participation and performance data to the U.S.News, Success Academy ranked 11th among high schools in New York State and 9th among high schools in New York City.
This year, after NYSED refused to authorize the College Board to provide AP data, Success Academy’s statewide ranking fell to approximately 196th. By obscuring relevant data, NYSED has artificially inflated the rankings of failing schools at the expense of those, like Success Academy, whose teachers and students are achieving superior results.
That change was not caused by a collapse in Success Academy’s academic performance. In fact, Success Academy ranked #1 in Math and #2 in ELA/Reading in all of New York State in 2025. As they did in prior years, starting in eighth grade, every Success Academy student completes a rigorous AP course load that far exceeds what the average American student takes, and this year achieved exceptional results: While nationally fewer than 25 percent of high school students pass at least one AP exam by the time they graduate, 95 percent of Success Academy’s Class of 2026 graduated passing three or more exams, 79% passing five or more, and 60 percent earning passing scores on seven or more AP exams. This year, more than 3,000 Success Academy scholars took 7,810 exams across 18 subjects — with an average pass rate of 68%. They outperformed their New York and global peers on nine AP exams, including U.S. and European History, Macro- and Microeconomics, and Literature.
What changed was the information U.S. News was permitted to consider.
“The teachers and students, 90 percent of whom are Black and Brown, did the work,” said Eva Moskowitz, Founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools. “Our scholars — most of whom are low-income, first generation — took demanding college-level courses, sat for nationally administered examinations, and produced extraordinary results. NYSED should not be allowed to prevent the public from seeing what they accomplished.”
According to correspondence from U.S. News, the publication is required by the College Board to seek authorization from each state before receiving AP data. Unlike 47 other states and the District of Columbia, New York declined to provide that authorization for the 2026 ranking cycle.
As a result, U.S. News expressly stated that New York schools’ College Readiness and College Curriculum Breadth scores were calculated without AP data and instead relied solely on International Baccalaureate examination data where available, grossly skewing U.S. News’ rankings.
The lawsuit argues that Commissioner Rosa’s decision has produced striking and sometimes counterintuitive results throughout the State.
For example, Mott Hall Bronx High School now ranks above Success Academy even though U.S. News reports mathematics proficiency of approximately 33 percent at Mott Hall, compared with 97 percent mathematics proficiency at Success Academy.
That result reflects a basic asymmetry in the current rankings. Without explanation, Commissioner Rosa has permitted International Baccalaureate examination results to be reported and used by U.S. News, while refusing to permit College Board AP results to be reported.
As a result, schools whose students take IB examinations can continue to receive credit in the ranking methodology for performance on externally administered advanced examinations, while schools such as Success Academy receive no comparable credit for exceptional performance on AP examinations.
Success Academy does not contend that IB achievement should be disregarded. The problem is that New York has permitted one form of advanced examination data, which is far less commonly available, to be counted while blocking the other, producing rankings that omit some of the most important objective evidence of Success Academy students’ academic achievement.
“The point is not that another school deserves to be ranked lower,” Moskowitz said. “The point is that New York has removed an entire category of objective academic information, and the resulting rankings no longer provide the public with a complete picture of school performance.”
The lawsuit also places the State’s AP policy in the broader context of New York’s move away from requiring students to pass Regents examinations to receive a high-school diploma.
Under Commissioner Rosa and the Board of Regents, New York is transitioning toward a graduation system that places less emphasis on common statewide examinations. The statewide teachers union, NYSUT, has publicly advocated for reducing reliance on standardized testing and has said that major State graduation proposals “closely align” with recommendations from its own More Teaching Less Testing initiative.
Success Academy argues that this change makes independent national measures such as AP examinations more important, not less.
“At the very moment New York is making its own high-school diploma less dependent on proof of academic mastery through common examinations, the State is suppressing one of the strongest national measures of actual academic mastery,” said Lisa Sun, Success Academy’s Chief Learning Officer.
AP examinations are administered independently of Success Academy and NYSED and provide a nationally comparable measure of college-level academic achievement.
Success Academy’s educational model is built around the principle that rigorous academic opportunities should not be reserved for affluent or selective students. Its high-school students participate extensively in AP coursework and have achieved exceptional results.
The complaint argues that those results matter not only to Success Academy’s institutional reputation but also to its students. Colleges evaluate applicants in the context of the rigor and academic environment of their high schools, and Success Academy contends that its students should receive full recognition for the demanding coursework they have completed and the results they have earned.
In addition, by withholding AP results and obscuring school rankings, the NYSED deprives parents of a transparent view of their educational choices. Families frequently rely on U.S. News to make informed, unbiased decisions about their children’s schooling. This action by NYSED does just the opposite.
The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief requiring New York to permit the College Board to provide Success Academy’s aggregate, non-personally identifying AP participation and performance data to U.S. News.
Success Academy is not asking the court to dictate how U.S. News should rank schools. It is asking the court to prevent NYSED from blocking truthful information from reaching the publication in the first place.
About Success Academy
Since its founding in 2006, Success Academy has created the highest-performing public school system in New York State, and a national model of access to excellence for children across all demographics. Success Academy enrolls over 22,000+ children in almost 60 elementary, middle, and high schools across New York City. The majority of Success Academy scholars are from low-income households in disadvantaged neighborhoods, all admitted through a random public lottery. Its distinctive K-12 approach, designed as a holistic 13-year educational trajectory, leads to student outcomes that outpace even those in the most affluent suburban schools. For nine consecutive years, 100% of SA’s graduates have been accepted to college, many to highly selective institutions. Most are the first in their families to have the opportunity for higher education. By scaling excellence and reigniting the civic mission of education, Success Academy is leading a movement.
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