Only 52 public schools in the country show a 0% proficiency rate in our data, and almost none of them are what the number implies. Most are very small, several teach newly arrived immigrants still learning English, and the figure often says more about testing rules than teaching.
Arthur Chen
There are 5,612 alternative public schools in the country, and most people only learn what they are when a principal suggests one for their child. Some are punishment. Some are a second chance at a diploma. The label covers both, and the difference matters enormously.
Kate Carter
Timber Ridge Elementary in East Cobb posts the highest test proficiency of any public elementary school in Cobb County. Almost the entire top of the list sits in East Cobb, the scores track neighborhood income, and two separate districts share the county. Here are the top 15.
Kate Carter
At the most diverse elementary schools in the country, no racial or ethnic group comes close to a majority. One city runs the list: Anchorage, Alaska, takes 10 of the top 15 spots, a reflection of a student body split almost evenly across every group federal data tracks.
Arthur Chen
PISA 2025 landed last week with the worst reading and math averages in the program's history, and one in five 15-year-olds now a low performer in every subject. The obvious suspect is screen time, and the evidence for it is real but narrower than the headlines. The sharper clue is who is falling: American elementary and middle school scores went up last year.
Arthur Chen
The recommended caseload for a school counselor is 250 students. The national average is 372, and only four states meet the standard. High schools have quietly gotten there. Elementary and middle schools are running caseloads near 700.
Mary Johnson
The average public high school enrolls about 700 students, but the typical one enrolls 420, because a few thousands-strong giants pull the average up. Elementary schools average about 424. And the state you live in changes the answer by a factor of five.
Mary Johnson
Nearly a third of America's public schools are rural, but they enroll a fifth of its students. Suburbs run the biggest schools and the most of them. Here is how the four kinds of communities compare on size, staffing, and what that means for a child in each one.
Arthur Chen
Federal law mostly forbids public schools from separating students by sex, with one carve-out that a few cities have used heavily. We counted every public school in the country where at least 95% of students are boys or girls. Texas and New York hold half, and the biggest is a 180-year-old girls' school in Baltimore.
Arthur Chen
We compared 2025 and 2026 STAAR results for more than 8,000 Texas schools. Reading, math, and social studies each moved one to two points. Science moved seven, in both tested grades, and at a majority of schools. Here is where the gains landed, which districts moved most, and the caveat on science.
Arthur Chen
A fifth straight failing rating forces the Texas education commissioner to replace a district's elected school board or close the school. At least 14 districts now have a school at four, and the list runs from San Antonio ISD to a district of 172 students.
Arthur Chen
The American school year is famously 180 days, but that is a convention, not a national rule. Colorado requires as few as 160 days, Kansas goes to 186, some states count hours instead of days, and the four-day week is quietly rewriting the math in hundreds of districts.
Arthur Chen
Mills Park Elementary in Cary posts the highest test proficiency of any public elementary school in Wake County, home to Raleigh. The strongest schools cluster in the Cary, Apex, and Morrisville tech corridor, and the scores track neighborhood income closely. Here are the top 15.
Mary Johnson
Central Magnet School in Tennessee took the top spot, and Arizona's BASIS charter network placed 12 schools in the national top 100. But read the list closely and a pattern emerges: nearly every school at the top is small, selective, or both.
Kate Carter
A Reason Foundation analysis scored the 100 largest districts on eight financial measures. Fort Bend ISD in Texas triggered seven of eight warning signs and Gwinnett County in Georgia six, while only two large districts, Baltimore City and Rutherford County, triggered none.
Arthur Chen
Texas released its 2026 A-F accountability ratings for 1,202 districts and 9,105 schools. A ratings climbed, F ratings fell, and 585 schools jumped straight to an A. The ratings also arrive on time, after lawsuits blocked them for years.
Arthur Chen
