Evaluating Public Schools

College Board recently released its latest AP District Honor Roll, which features 367 school districts nationwide. These schools have shown improvements not only in enrollment in AP classes but also in the number of students who scored high enough on the exams to obtain college credit. The school districts on this list have shown a commitment to helping high-achieving students attain academic success and have broadened the options of these students in pursuing postsecondary education.

What is Advanced Placement?

According to the College Board website, the Advanced Placement program was designed to allow students to earn college credit while still in high school. The program currently boasts more than 30 college-level course options that include a cumulative exam at the end that enables students to receive college credit for the material covered. The AP program also shows college admissions boards that students can handle the rigors of a postsecondary curriculum.

Advanced Placement courses are recognized by more than 3,800 colleges and universities worldwide. This ensures that the students participating in these high school courses have many options after graduation. The ability to earn college credit while in high school can present significant cost savings on higher education and allow students to complete their degree programs at a much faster rate.

This video explains Advanced Placement.

About the Advanced Placement Honor Roll

To qualify for the annual Advanced Placement Honor

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

There is no doubt that many high schools across the country have faced serious challenges in light of the current economic slowdown. With shrinking budgets and the pressures of standardized test scores, schools have made difficult decisions regarding staffing, programs, and resources. With attention to these circumstances, the annual ranking conducted by Newsweek made some significant changes to take the challenges into account. With an expanded advisory board and a wider range of criteria, the publication recently released its ranking of the top 500 high schools in America. We’ll examine the criteria used by Newsweek to make their choices and highlight some of the schools that made the top of the list this year.

The Newsweek rankings discussed below are historical. In 2026, high school ranking methodologies have evolved and commonly incorporate standardized test performance, graduation rates, college readiness, student growth, and equity measures. Public School Review's Public School Rankings: Are They Accurate in 2026? provides current context on how school rankings are calculated and interpreted.

In this TEDTalk, Elizabeth Daves peels back the layers of the practice of ranking students, exposes the negative impact that ranking has on those being ranked, and calls for a shift in mindset about what learning, and teaching, means.

How Best to Rank High Schools?

When Newsweek embarked on this project for the current year,

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

Closing the achievement gap remains one of the most urgent challenges in American public education. The term refers to persistent disparities in academic performance between groups of students, often defined by income level, race, ethnicity, and access to resources. While the gap has not disappeared, recent data and policy changes show measurable progress in several areas.

Public schools across the country are implementing targeted strategies that combine funding reforms, instructional innovation, and student support systems. These efforts, particularly since 2024, reflect a broader shift toward equity-driven education policy and data-informed decision-making.

Understanding the Achievement Gap in 2026

Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that achievement gaps in math and reading narrowed slightly between 2022 and 2024, particularly in early elementary grades, though disparities persist in middle and high school levels. Pandemic-related learning loss continues to influence outcomes, but recovery efforts are beginning to show results.

Key trends shaping the current landscape include:

• Increased federal and state investment in high-need districts
• Expanded access to early childhood education
• Greater emphasis on data tracking and accountability
• Growth in targeted intervention programs

According to the NCES, students in high-poverty schools are still significantly less likely to meet proficiency benchmarks, reinforcing the need for sustained intervention.

Key Strategies Public Schools Are Using

1. Expanding Early Childhood Education

One of the most widely supported strategies for closing the achievement gap is investing in early learning. Research consistently shows that

Parents send their children to school every day in hopes that their kids will get a good education in a relatively safe environment. However, drug sales and gang activity often impact a student's ability to learn and feel comfortable in the place they spend the bulk of their time every day. While few argue that drugs and gangs have become a major problem in middle and high schools across the country, not everyone agrees what should be done. Some schools have brought in undercover officers who pose as high school students with the goal of routing out the guilty parties and removing them from the school environment. While the approach has proven successful, questions still remain about whether this is the right way to put a stop to illegal activity in public schools.

Undercover in Florida

In one of the biggest stings ever to hit public high schools, more than 30 people have been arrested in Palm Beach schools for selling drugs in an undercover operation dubbed "Operation D Minus." The students responsible for the drug sales were identified by undercover police officers who posed as students in the schools for the entire school year. These youthful officers were assigned to attend classes, eat lunch in the school cafeteria and even take tests with the other students, in hopes of discovering the root of the drug problem that had grown by monumental proportions among high school students in the area.

According to a report at

School shootings are tragic occurrences that have become far too common in our culture today by many standards. In light of some of the most recent events involving school shootings in Philadelphia, New Mexico, and Colorado, as well as the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, some state legislators are considering a new approach to the problem: licenses that allow educators to carry concealed weapons onto campus. The first known school district to institute such a policy was the Harrold Independent School District in Harrold, Texas, but numerous other districts have followed suit in recent years, with other districts considering the possibility rather seriously. We'll take a closer look at the issue of guns in school and some of the districts that are thinking about taking matters into their own hands.

Current Laws

Laws vary from state to state regarding the criteria for purchasing and carrying a gun. Some states do not require a permit to purchase a handgun or long gun, nor do some states require gun owners to register their firearms. And while some states require a permit to carry a concealed weapon, others require no such permit for concealed or open carry weapons. A number of states including Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut have passed restrictive assault weapons laws in light of the use of such weapons in many of the most recent school shootings.