Charters and magnet schools dominate the top of the 2017 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings. BASIS Scottsdale, a charter school in Arizona, is the No. 1 public high school in the U.S. and four other Arizona BASIS schools made the top 10, including BASIS Tucson North, which took second, followed by BASIS Oro Valley at No 3.
BASIS Scottsdale, an Arizona charter, is the top public high school in the country, according to U.S. News.
The rankings are based on test scores, Advanced Placement success, graduation rates and whether “their least-advantaged students – those of black, Hispanic and low-income backgrounds – performed at or better than the state average.”
Sixty percent of the top 100 schools in the ranking are charters and magnets.
In addition to BASIS, which predominantly enrolls middle-class white and Asian-American students, charter networks with more disadvantaged students did well, such as KIPP and YES Prep.