Teacher

Success Academy sues New York State for suppressing AP test scores. 'Government-created information blockade' blocks families, U.S. News from access. September 4, 2026 The Success Academy charter school network is suing the New York education commissioner, Betty Rosa, accusing her of blocking the release of AP test score results as part of what the lawsuit calls "a government-created information blockade." The suit says Rosa, at the behest of the teachers' union, blocked the College Board from releasing AP test data to U.S. News & World Report for use in its high school rankings. That effectively impeded Success's ability to communicate - a violation of First Amendment free expression rights, the suit says. "Fewer than 25 percent of high school students nationally pass at least one AP examination by the time they graduate. By contrast, 95 percent of Success Academy's 2026 graduating class passed three or more AP examinations, 79 percent passed five or more, and 60 percent passed seven or more," the lawsuit says. "Those results are among the most objective and compelling evidence of the rigor of Success Academy's high-school program and of its students' readiness for college." "Success Academy therefore wants those results known. It wants them known to families of prospective students who are seeking a rigorous education for their children; to the colleges and universities to which Success Academy's students are applying; and to journalists, educators, policymakers, philanthropists, and the public," the lawsuit says. "Success Academy particularly wants these results known to U.S. News & World Report ('U.S. News'), which publishes one of the country's most widely disseminated high-school rankings." "This case is about much more than our place on a ranking. It is about whether parents and the public will have access to clear, objective evidence of whether students in New York's public schools are actually learning," the charter school network said in a memo about the case. "It's also about Success Academy's students being denied the recognition they deserve, and the merit they earned." The lawsuit puts the state action in the context of a broader push by New York and the New York State United Teachers union to deemphasize standardized testing. It also notes that AP test results are particularly valuable information. "AP results are an unusually valuable form of speech concerning educational performance. They allow Success Academy to say, in substance: 'Don't take our word for it. Our students have been measured against a national external standard.' New York has prevented Success from delivering that authenticated message through the entity that administers the standard," the suit says. It asks the court to order Rosa to notify the College Board that it is authorized to release the Success Academy AP data to U.S. News. A spokesman for the state education department, J.P. O'Hare, said that while the department "does not comment on potential litigation," it "takes its responsibility to protect student data seriously." "Compliance with New York's student privacy laws is not optional, and it does not take a back seat to U.S. News & World Report's commercial ranking methodology, or any other desire to turn information about New York's children into a for-profit product," O'Hare said. "New York State's AP participation data is collected to reflect student achievement in rigorous coursework, not to rank schools. If Success Academy believes that the commercial value of student information outweighs the State's responsibility to protect it, it is free to explain as much in a lawsuit. But NYSED does not share that perspective." He said the state education department "remains committed to transparency and currently makes extensive educational data, including AP participation information, available on its website." Success Academy is not demanding the public release of individual test scores with student names attached. The state could claim that some schools or classes are small enough that someone could deduce a student's test score, but Success will respond that the privacy concern is a pretext for suppressing information that is unflattering to the government-operated schools. The case, Success Academy Charter Schools-NYC v. Rosa, is before Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York. The Success network, led by former New York City Council education committee chair Eva Moskowitz, operates nearly 60 schools in New York City, educating tens of thousands of students, and is planning to open schools in Florida beginning in August 2027. Moskowitz's husband, Eric Grannis, is a litigator and is representing the network in the case.

Charter school network files First Amendment lawsuit after state blocks AP scores from US News. Success Academy, New York City's largest charter school network, is pushing back against the New York State Education Department (NYSED) over what it calls a violation of its First Amendment rights. The charter network filed a federal lawsuit against New York State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa, challenging the state's refusal to authorize the College Board to release Advanced Placement (AP) exam results for New York public schools to U.S. News & World Report for its annual high school rankings. "There's no question that it's a First Amendment violation because, essentially... a publication right is being prevented from reporting real news," Eric Grannis told Fox News Digital. Grannis is an attorney representing the lawsuit and the husband of Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz. U.S. News & World Report compiles its nationally recognized high school rankings using academic criteria, including student participation and performance on AP exams. "Now, it both determines the ranking, and the information is also provided by U.S. News & World Report," Grannis added. "So, you can see how many students participated in AP exams, how many, and how well the students did, and how many exams they took. And this has not been a problem for decades." "But just this year, Betty Rosa, the commissioner of the New York State Education Department, decided that they would not allow U.S. News & World Report to report on any of these AP grades," he said. The lawsuit alleges that NYSED's policy violates the First Amendment by preventing Success Academy from communicating truthful, independently verified information about its students' academic performance. The network said that U.S. News relies directly on data from the College Board - the organization that administers AP exams - to build its annual school rankings. Because NYSED declined to authorize the College Board to release 2026 AP scores, U.S. News calculated the advanced course metrics using only International Baccalaureate (IB) data. Because Success Academy offers AP courses rather than IB programs, the network received zero credit for 40% of the ranking's weighted criteria, causing its statewide ranking to crater from 11th to 196th. "All of this critical information about this incredible success of its students has been suppressed by the New York State Education Department. And so we have brought a First Amendment lawsuit to require the commissioner to allow this data to be made public," Grannis told Fox News Digital. Success Academy accused NYSED of obscuring data to artificially inflate the rankings of traditional public schools at the expense of high-performing charter schools. The network noted 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, with 60% passing seven or more. Founded in 2006, Success Academy serves over 22,000 predominantly low-income, Black, and Hispanic students across New York City. The network regularly highlights its academic performance against some of the state's wealthiest suburban districts, such as Scarsdale Union Free School District, where fewer than 10% of students are Black or Hispanic and zero percent are categorized as economically disadvantaged. According to state test scores released for grades 3-8 in 2025, Success Academy ranked No. 1 in New York State for math proficiency with a 96% pass rate. The network also placed second statewide in English Language Arts (ELA) with a 92% pass rate - trailing Scarsdale by just one percentage point. NYSED has defended its position by citing student data privacy laws, saying that student information should not be commercialized for ranking products. However, Grannis argued that applying commercial restrictions to educational reporting sets a dangerous precedent. He noted that major news outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post are also commercial entities, but their for-profit status does not diminish their First Amendment protections. "If the commissioner had her way... it would strike at the heart of the First Amendment," Grannis said. "It would mean that in theory, she could prohibit anybody from reporting on, say, the average reading scores of New York City school students because that would be, in her view, profiting - having a newspaper article in a for-profit magazine about student data." Grannis also alleged that NYSED's decisions are heavily influenced by traditional public school interests and teachers unions. "The Department of Education is particularly highly aligned with the teachers union," Grannis claimed. "The teachers union is adamantly against accountability. They don't like there to be lots of public information getting out there about how well students are doing because it's going to point out that the students at charter schools are generally doing far better than the students at the district schools that are unionized." Success Academy has a long history of friction with teachers unions, particularly over sharing space in public school buildings, known as co-locations. Charter schools receive public funding on a per-pupil basis, creating financial competition with traditional district public schools. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit in 2023 seeking to block two Success Academy co-locations in Brooklyn and Queens, arguing in part that the city failed to account for a state-mandated class-size law. Grannis argued that the state's move to suppress score releases reflects a broader policy stance against standardized metrics. "They have made this very public for years... they call it 'less testing, more teaching,'" Grannis said. "I think it might be more accurately titled 'less teaching, less accountability,' because essentially it hides the failure of the district schools to obtain results. And you know what governments do when they don't like unfavorable comparisons: they suppress information." NYSED did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. On air now. 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM Wfmd listener club.