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Commentary By Wai Wah Chin

Albany’s Allergy To Merit Hits Top High Schools Where It Hurts — in Their Rankings

Education Pre K-12, New York

Photo: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Albany has plenty of ways to punish great students and schools — and now it’s found a new one.

When state bureaucrats chose to deny US News & World Report the data it uses to rank nearly 18,000 public schools on its 2026-27 Best High Schools list, it was a move that harmed New York’s top performers.

Parents are getting a perverse lesson in accountability: A school can give thousands of students college-level exams, and see them pass in extraordinary numbers — only to have the state stifle news of its success.

The stakes are high. USNWR rankings are known as reliable, standardized comparisons of performance.

Families consider them to choose schools and neighborhoods, colleges review them to assess candidates, and schools themselves use them to advertise or improve.

Continue reading the entire piece here at The New York Post

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Wai Wah Chin an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.