Tucson's BASIS charter school, led by Carolyn McGarvy, has been identified as one of the top three high schools in America, based on Newsweek magazine’s recently released list of 100 best American high schools.
The list identifies the most rigorous public high schools in the country based on Washington Post writer Jay Matthews’ “Challenge Index,” a ratio between the number of Advanced Placement (AP) and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams taken by all students and the number of graduating seniors.
BASIS Tucson charter school is the first Arizona high school to make Newsweek’s top 100 ranking since its inception in 1998.
Carolyn’s involvement with BASIS began as a parent. Armed with a keen intellect, a passion for excellence in education, a winning smile, and just a touch of a Scottish lilt to her speech, Carolyn moved into a leadership role at BASIS. She earned a master’s degree through the Leadership for Educational Entrepreneurs (LEE) program at ASU-West campus. With the academic and financial knowledge gained through the LEE program added to an already impressive set of leadership skills, Carolyn was well prepared to lead a very good school to the heights of excellence.
Founded in 1998, BASIS Tucson is a 5-12 college prep charter school offering a twenty-first-century liberal arts curriculum with a rigorous science and math program. Only the high school was included in the Newsweek ranking, but students take physics, chemistry, and biology beginning in sixth grade. BASIS is one of only two American high schools to have all their graduating seniors pass at least one AP or IB exam, which qualifies them to earn college course credits.
Given the success of its Tucson campus, BASIS founders opened a Scottsdale middle school in 2003. They would eventually like to add a BASIS high school campus in the Phoenix-metro area.
Accompanying the list of outstanding schools is an article by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert, “What Makes a High School Great?” The article highlights the school of another LEE Fellow, Tempe Preparatory Academy, led by Headmaster Ron Bergez. The school’s curriculum is based on the Great Books concept and focuses on a classic liberal arts education. Ron entered the LEE program with both business and educational experience: sales and management with a textbook company and teacher of Humanities. The combination of LEE’s business and education courses was a perfect match for Ron and has prepared him to lead an exemplary school as well as contribute to the expansion of a network of charter schools.
You can view the list and read the accompanying article online at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532668/site/newsweek/. Although only four of the ranked schools are in Arizona, we are proud that one of them is a charter school. And when you read the article, you will note that many of the examples cited as outstanding high schools are charter schools. We can all be proud that charter schools are leading the way in high school reform.
Cuyler Reid is Community Liaison for Leadership for Educational Entrepreneurs (LEE). She is a founder and board member of Valley Academy and serves on the Governing Board of the Arizona Charter Schools Association. She can be reached at whistletoo@aol.com.