Success Academy AP scores are at the centre of a federal First Amendment lawsuit filed against New York’s state Education Department, after the department declined to authorise the College Board to share 2026 Advanced Placement results with U.S. News and World Report, causing the charter-school network to fall nearly 200 places in the magazine’s school rankings.
The lawsuit was filed on 1 September 2026 and names New York State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa as a defendant, according to the New York Post.
How the Ranking Collapsed
Because the New York State Education Department (NYSED) withheld authorisation for the College Board to release AP data, U.S. News calculated its advanced-course metrics using only International Baccalaureate results. Since Success Academy offers AP programmes rather than IB programmes, the network received zero credit for 40% of the ranking’s weighted criteria, according to Yahoo News.
The effect was categorical rather than marginal. Success Academy’s lawsuit argues that the suppressed AP data would have told a materially different story: 95% of its 2026 graduating class passed at least three AP exams, and 60% passed seven or more. Nationally, fewer than 25% of high school graduates pass even a single AP exam.
Success Academy is not alone in experiencing the drop. Schools in Westchester and on Long Island reported similar ranking declines, also attributed to NYSED’s decision not to share AP data with U.S. News, News 12 Bronx reported.
What the Success Academy AP Scores Row Reveals
Eva Moskowitz, founder and chief executive of Success Academy, argued in a Washington Post opinion piece that NYSED had left families and universities ‘in the dark’ by preventing U.S. News from accessing AP performance data across the state’s schools.
She rejected the department’s privacy justification directly. ‘Privacy refers to personal identifiable data, and that’s not what this is. It’s in the aggregate,’ Moskowitz told News 12 Bronx.
NYSED pushed back. The department stated that ‘New York State’s AP participation data is collected to reflect student achievement in rigorous coursework, not to rank schools,’ and added that if Success Academy believes the commercial value of the data outweighs the state’s responsibility to protect it, the network ‘is free to explain as much in a lawsuit.’
The lawsuit goes further than a procedural grievance. Success Academy accuses NYSED of obscuring data in a way that artificially inflates the rankings of traditional public schools at the expense of high-performing charter schools, an allegation the department has not publicly accepted.
The First Amendment framing is the most legally consequential element of the claim. Success Academy argues the state has no right to block AP score data from being reported to U.S. News, framing the department’s authorisation refusal as an unconstitutional restraint on the flow of information.
Founded in 2006, Success Academy serves over 22,000 predominantly low-income, Black, and Hispanic students across New York City. The network’s own results page records that 100% of its graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges for nine consecutive years, and that 99% of the 2026 graduating class received an offer covering their full financial need, according to Success Academy’s official results page.
The lawsuit argues that the ranking drop has direct consequences beyond institutional reputation. Reduced rankings affect students’ college prospects because admissions officers at higher education institutions routinely factor school rigour into their assessments, according to National Review.
Critics of NYSED’s position argue that the privacy explanation is being used to shield the comparative underperformance of traditional public schools from scrutiny by parents and college admissions officers alike. If the First Amendment claim succeeds, the ruling could constrain how state education agencies manage data flows to commercial ranking publishers, with implications well beyond New York.
Subject to any onward proceedings, the next significant moment will be whether the federal court grants any interim relief compelling NYSED to authorise release of the 2026 AP data before the U.S. News ranking cycle closes.
