In 2003, 5,719 Arizona high school graduates had taken at least one Advanced Placement (AP) test before completing high school. In 2013, that jumped to 14,980 students. Statewide participation in the tests more than doubled over that period, from 11.4% of graduates to 24.6% of graduates. (College Board, AP Report To The Nation, 2014)

In 2015, Arizona had the 3rd highest number of charter schools (623), surpassed only by Florida (653) and California (1,184), according to National Alliance for Public Charter Schools data from 2015. Arizona has the highest number of charter schools relative to the number of all public schools of any state.

19 Arizona schools made the Washington Post's 'Most Challenging' list for 2017, which ranks public and private high schools across the country on factors including the number of college-level tests administered to students. Three Arizona schools ranked in the top 10: BASIS Phoenix at #1, BASIS Oro Valley at #8, and BASIS Flagstaff at #10.

Arizona college-bound seniors have consistently scored higher on the SAT than the U.S. average student for the past 20 years. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015)

Arizona students’ average scores on 2015 NAEP eighth-grade mathematics tests showed more improvement since 2009 compared with the national average during the same period, the Arizona scores are now on par with the national average. The same is true for the eighth-grade reading assessments. (National Assessment of Educational Progress)