BASIS uncovered

Education | Public-school educators are doing their best to ignore a charter school that is accomplishing what they cannot | Megan Basham

James Gregg/Genesis Photos

TUCSON, Ariz.—BASIS charter school in Tucson, Ariz., may be the most unassuming high school ever to receive positive treatment from the national media. Nothing about its location (downtown next to a Bank of America and across from Target) nor its building (a rather dated former daycare center) indicates that it could compete with the monolith, state-of-the-art high schools that surround it.

Yet not only does it compete with local schools that have vastly more money and resources, according to analyses by Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, it bests them and schools all across the country. In 2008, Newsweek ranked BASIS the No. 1 high school in America. It won the publication's fifth place for 2009, and has been in the top 10 every year since 2006. U.S. News and World Report further bolstered BASIS' reputation, naming it 13th on their 2009 best high schools list and giving it a gold medal for college readiness.