This morning, U.S. News and World Report released its 2018 list of the nation’s best high schools. For the past few years, public charters have been slowly taking over the top 10 spots on the list; this year, they dominated them.

For those of us who believe in the power of public school choice to bring dramatic change to America’s education system, the timing of the release couldn’t have been better. After all, it’s National Charter School Week, and what better way to highlight the success of public charters than by celebrating that seven of  America’s 10 best high schools are charter schools, including the top six spots.

Of course, rankings should always be taken with a grain of salt, and U.S. News’s methodology for ranking schools differs from the method used by The Washington Post for its “most challenging high schools” list. Creating performance frameworks for schools is difficult, and there’s alway room for quibbling over rankings and ratings.

Regardless, we shouldn’t ignore that public charter schools were the only non-selective public high schools to make it into the top 10 spots on the U.S. News list

District-run “selective” schools are allowed to evaluate applications and select students based on academic criteria and other admission requirements. Public charters, on the other, must take all students who apply. If a charter school is oversubscribed, it holds a lottery to see who gets in, giving preference only to siblings of current students and, in some cases, students who are economically disadvantaged.

The only three traditional public schools to earn a spot on the U.S. News top 10 list have admission requirements. Of the top 20 spots on the list, nine of the 11 traditional public schools have them. The other two traditional public schools in the top 20 use lottery enrollment systems similar to those of public charters.

Personally, I don’t have an ideological objection to academically selective public schools; however, I think placing these high schools in the same category as the rest of America’s public schools doesn’t make for a fair comparison.

When high schools require students to complete any combination of testing, grade reporting, interviews, or teacher recommendations as part of the admissions process, they are attempting to select for a specific subset of students – the brightest and most motivated. To some extent, the most difficult work has already been done. These schools are only admitting the students deemed most likely to succeed based on their previous academic and behavioral records. America’s other public schools, including public charters, must teach all kids, regardless of their abilities or behavioral issues.

A mere five years ago, on the 2013 list, seven of the top 10 schools had selective admissions processes. (The other three were two charters and a traditional public school with a lottery admission). In a short time – because of the growth and success of public charters – we’ve seen those numbers reverse.

Charters competing with, and outranking, these selective schools shows that America now has public high schools capable of educating all students, not only those marked as highly qualified before they walk through the doors.

If states and districts continue to invest in growing 21^stcentury school systems that utilize the charter formula of autonomy, accountability, and choice, we can have more of these schools. And maybe, one day, America can live up the promise of providing a rigorous and enriching public school for every child – not just for those who test into one.

This week, Antwan Wilson stepped down as Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools after the majority of the 13-member D.C. City Council demanded his resignation for skirting the rules of the infamously competitive D.C. school lottery. Wilson ensured his daughter received a preferential transfer into the district’s highest-performing, non-selective traditional public school.

To the City Council, I would like to say: “well done.”

Wilson’s daughter was attending Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a selective performance arts school with a three-part admissions process. Ellington is generally considered one of the district’s better high schools; however, in the middle of the academic year, Wilson decided the school was not a good fit for his daughter.

Rather than abide by the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) rules for a mid-year transfer Wilson approached the Deputy Mayor for Education to secure a placement for his daughter in Wilson High School. Following the district’s procedure for a mid-year transfer would have meant sending his daughter to her in-boundary neighborhood school, Dunbar High School.

Just half a year ago, in his “Vision for D.C. Public Schools,” Wilson wrote: “Families, educators and community members expect us to offer students a world-class education that will prepare them to think for themselves, work with others and lead in today’s complex world. They expect us to do that for every student in every neighborhood — without exception. And they expect us to do it with the same caring we would show our own children.”

They’re beautiful words, but his action speaks louder. He  didn’t show the same caring for every D.C. child as he did for his own; after all, he placed his daughter in front of the more than 100 other children on Wilson High School’s waitlist.

It also shows that he doesn’t really expect each high school to offer students a world-class education.

If Wilson really wanted for communities to believe that obtaining a world-class education for their children was a possibility at any district school, in any neighborhood, would he have sought preferential placement for his daughter at DCPS’s most racially and socio-economically diverse traditional public school? Wouldn’t he have sent her to Dunbar High School, where 100 percent of students are economically disadvantaged?

There’s no doubt that Wilson was just acting out of love and trying to do what was best for his daughter, but over 100 other parents wanted the same for their children. They just didn’t have the means to get it.

Wilson previously promised that DCPS would “develop a clear vision for equity that addresses race, income, disability, English-language fluency and other traditional markers for disadvantage, and then act on that vision in ways that strengthen opportunity.”

The lottery system is a crucial part of that vision for equity. It offers an equal chance for all students to receive placement in one of the district’s top schools, regardless of socio-economic status. Wilson even previously worked to strengthen the lottery rules by attempting to close loopholes that made preferential placements possible.

By going around this system, he betrayed parents, the DCPS community, and his own mission to create equity for all families in DCPS.

Wilson’s vision statement for DCPS was beautifully written, but if the Chancellor doesn’t believe in abiding by the system he created to help make that vision a reality for all parents and children in DCPS, then he’s not the man for the job.

The community has spoken, and, at least for once, the City Council listened.

Fighting for the neediest and pushing back against special interests are often unexpected actions in the realm of political battles.

However, Dorsey Hopson, Superintendent of the Shelby County Schools (SCS) in Memphis, Tennessee, might exceed our expectations.

Last week, Hopson announced that he is “willing to voluntarily relinquish control over some struggling schools to be operated by private charter groups.”

For years, SCS has been working hard to turn around struggling schools through its Innovation Zone. The iZone, however, is a costly model, and few of its schools have successfully achieved key benchmarks.

In defense of his decision, Hopson said:  “We spend so much money, whether it’s philanthropic dollars, state dollars, our dollars, on trying to improve these Priority Schools over the last five or six years, and we’ve gotten some gains but certainly nowhere near the transformative results that we would like to have had …So I think we’ve got to take another shot at it and do it differently.”

Hopson is showing strength of character by acknowledging the success of the charter school model at a time when the anti-charter propaganda machine is in full swing. Because he recognizes the district’s need for “transformative results,” Hopson is willing to throw out the old, unsuccessful model of education that has failed urban students for decades in favor of embracing public charters, which have created profound changes in cities like New Orleans, Washington D.C., Denver, and Indianapolis.

Strong superintendents cannot, and should not, sit idly and continue to  support schools that are not helping children achieve, especially when public charters schools can help thousands of our nation’s most disadvantaged kids.

After all, the Tennessee Charter School Center reminds us that a charter sector benefit students because:

• Public charter schools are held accountable.  Test scores and performance results are published and are part of the school district findings.
• Public charter schools provide healthy learning environments for all students, including students with special needs, English Language Learners and the gifted.
• Public charter schools are not allowed to turn away any child, for any reason.
• Public charter school teachers want to be in their school; it was their interest that brought them to the school.

If none of these key points brings you to the table with Superintendent Hopson, then looking at the data from the 2017 Shelby County Schools Charter Schools Annual Report might. The existing charter schools have already paved the way for more innovation, progress, and success.

The report notes that student enrollment in Shelby County charter schools has increased annually by an average of 1,500 students per year. More parents are choosing the charter option than ever before.

The charter sector also has lower suspension rates for secondary schools, and public charters in Shelby County have a lower withdrawal rate than district-managed schools. More students receive more days of instruction.

Finally, charter schools participate in a program that offers transparency and encourages oversight.  The Operations Score Card (OSC)  assesses the charter schools’ performance regarding non-academic expectations, like school budgets, operation, legal compliance and other issues.  The OSC stated that Shelby County Charter schools “are consistently managing operations well and to respond appropriately in the interest of protecting SCS and its students when charters are at risk for non-compliance.”

In  Reinventing America’s Schools, David Osborne underscores the findings and points out, “As in most charter cities, Memphis’s charters outperform traditional public schools.”  

The data supports the promise of having public charters take over operation of SCS’s failing schools. It’s no wonder that Hopson supported the idea too.

Of course, not everyone was pleased at Hopson’s announcement. United Education Association of Shelby County President Tikeila Rucker was dismayed that Hopson would consider partnering with charter organizations: ““UEA along with parents, teachers and community leaders stands behind the district turning schools around, not giving schools away.”

Unfortunately, in the face of such commotion, Hopson has begun to placate those who want to keep the status quo.  In an email to principals, he clarified his remarks, writing: “All that said, I want to be very clear that my preference would always be to keep schools under the governance of (Shelby County Schools).”

Please, Superintendent Hopson, continue to stay strong and do what’s right. Put politics aside and put kids first.