Educators and students across the 32 BASIS Charter School campuses grinned broadly at the publication of U.S. News & World Report’s new rankings, with three Arizona schools in the Top 10 STEM high schools in the U.S.
Then they went back to class.
Back to class? Really? “Yes, really! Our students and teachers acknowledge their hard work, even celebrate it! But they always keep working,” said BASIS Charter Schools co-founder Olga Block. “That’s where the rankings success comes from – plus the individual student achievement that each family can celebrate, too.”
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Top 10 STEM high schools in the U.S.
1. The Davidson Academy of Nevada, Reno, NV
2. High Technology High School, Lincroft, NJ
5. BASIS Peoria
6. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA
7. Science and Engineering Magnet School (SEM), Dallas
8. The School for the Talented and Gifted (TAG), Dallas
9. The Early College at Guilford, Greensboro, NC
10. Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies, Edison, NJ
The national rankings, national STEM rankings, national charter school rankings, and state rankings published each spring by U.S. News & World Report are traditionally an indicator of the BASIS Charter School network’s priority of college preparation and advanced-level curricula across grade levels. They are among a number of such indicators, of course. But since US News changed its rankings methodology several years ago to not focus solely on college prep schools, the publication’s STEM rankings, in particular, are what the educators at BASIS have particularly noted.
“For a college prep-oriented network like ours, with 100% of our graduates in our 24-year history accepted to four-year colleges and universities, overall rankings aren’t as meaningful as STEM rankings,” Mrs. Block says. “The STEM rankings are a useful gauge, as they are the closest to recognizing high-level college prep that US News now gets.”
