Success Academy, the city’s biggest charter school network, is taking legal action against the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for what it calls a clear violation of its First Amendment rights. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, targets Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa after the state denied the College Board permission to release 2026 Advanced Placement (AP) exam results to U.S. News & World Report.
Why the data matters
U.S. News uses AP participation and performance as a core metric in its annual high‑school rankings. Success Academy argues that without the AP data, the rankings are skewed, because the publication must rely on International Baccalaureate (IB) figures—a program the network does not offer. As a result, the charter’s statewide ranking plummeted from 11th to 196th, a drop the school says misrepresents the academic success of its students.
Legal claim
Attorney Eric Grannis, who also represents the network’s CEO Eva Moskowitz, says the state’s action “prevents a publication from reporting real news,” constituting a First Amendment violation. The complaint alleges that NYSED’s policy suppresses truthful, independently verified information about student achievement, thereby shielding traditional public schools from accountability.
Success Academy’s performance record
Founded in 2006, Success Academy serves more than 22,000 low‑income, Black and Hispanic students across New York City. The network points to its 2026 graduating class, where 95% of students passed three or more AP exams and 60% passed seven or more—a stark contrast to the national average, where fewer than 25% of graduates pass any AP exam.
State test data from 2025 shows the charter network ranked No. 1 in New York for math proficiency (96% pass rate) and second in English Language Arts (92% pass rate), trailing the affluent Scarsdale district by just one point.
NYSED’s justification
NYSED defends its decision by citing student‑data privacy laws, arguing that releasing the scores for commercial ranking products would constitute an unlawful commercialization of student information.
Grannis counters that the same privacy argument does not restrict major news outlets such as The New York Times or The Washington Post, which are also for‑profit entities but enjoy First Amendment protections.
Broader implications
The lawsuit highlights a larger conflict between charter schools and teachers’ unions in New York. Grannis claims the Department of Education is “highly aligned with the teachers union,” which opposes transparency because it masks the superior performance of charter schools compared to union‑run district schools.
Union opposition to charter schools has manifested in other legal battles, including a 2023 lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers seeking to block two Success Academy co‑locations in Brooklyn and Queens.
What’s at stake
If the court rules in favor of Success Academy, the decision could set a precedent for greater transparency of academic data, reinforcing parental‑rights to assess school performance and supporting school‑choice options for families seeking high‑quality education.
The case also underscores the importance of protecting free speech in educational reporting, a principle that aligns with constitutional guarantees and the values of many New York families who prioritize both faith‑based education and individual liberty.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
