By Westside Gazette Staff
Broward County Public Schools has good reason to celebrate.
Sixteen BCPS high schools have been ranked among the top 26% of schools in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026/27 Best High Schools rankings. Four — Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy, Pompano Beach High School, William T. McFatter Technical High School and Cypress Bay High School — landed within the top 5% nationally.
Millennium ranked No. 11 in Florida and No. 93 nationally. Pompano Beach was No. 32 in Florida and No. 274 nationally, McFatter was No. 40 and No. 461 nationally, while Cypress Bay ranked No. 55 in Florida and No. 810 nationally.
Those are accomplishments worthy of recognition.
But as we celebrate the schools that made the list, another question deserves just as much attention:
Where are the others? Where are some of Broward County’s historic schools serving predominantly Black communities?
Where is Dillard High School? Where is Boyd H. Anderson?
Where is Blanche Ely?
And what about other traditional neighborhood high schools that educate thousands of Broward County students but aren’t among the 16 schools BCPS is celebrating?
Their absence should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that these are unsuccessful schools. In fact, it should cause parents, educators, School Board members and the community to look more closely at what these national rankings actually measure — and at the opportunities available to students before those measurements are ever taken.
U.S. News evaluates high schools using measures including college readiness, college-level curriculum, state assessment performance and proficiency, and graduation rates.
Those measurements matter.
But so does the environment in which students are expected to achieve them.
Are We Comparing the Same Kind of Schools?
Some of Broward’s highest-ranked schools offer specialized academic environments, technical programs, magnet programs or other pathways that may attract students already positioned for advanced coursework.
That raises an important question: Is it fair to compare every high school as though every school begins at the same starting line?
Consider Dillard High School 6-12.
BCPS documents describe Dillard as approximately 91% Black and show that the school offers substantial specialized programming, including Cambridge coursework, Emerging Computer Technology, Digital Entrepreneurship, Studio Commercial Music and its nationally recognized performing arts program. (Broward Schools)
Yet Dillard does not appear among BCPS’ 16 schools highlighted in this year’s national ranking.
Boyd H. Anderson High School presents another example. Far from lacking rigorous programs, BCPS says Boyd Anderson offers International Baccalaureate programs, Cambridge AICE, Advanced Placement, dual enrollment and industry certification opportunities. The school’s own improvement plan reports increases in participation and pass rates in Cambridge AICE courses and expanded dual-enrollment and industry-certification opportunities. (Broward Schools)
Still, Boyd Anderson isn’t on the list.
Blanche Ely High School, another institution with deep historical significance to Broward’s Black community, is also absent. Yet BCPS records identify Blanche Ely as a magnet school, and current district material describes it as an A-rated High School and Magnet School of Distinction. (Broward Schools)
So, the question becomes more complicated than simply asking which schools are “good” and which are not.
Is This an Achievement Gap or an Opportunity Gap?
If students at one school have greater access to advanced courses, experienced teachers, academic intervention, college preparation, technology and other educational resources, their performance cannot be examined entirely apart from those opportunities.
Neither can poverty, housing instability, transportation, community resources and other conditions affecting students be ignored.
That doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of students attending Broward’s highest-ranked schools.
It asks something different of the adults responsible for the entire school system:
What can we learn from those successful schools, and why aren’t the conditions producing those results being replicated everywhere?
There is another issue worth examining.
Dillard and Boyd Anderson demonstrate that simply having advanced programs doesn’t necessarily translate into making this particular national list. The deeper questions are how many students have access to those programs, how many participate, how many complete the programs successfully, and whether those opportunities reach the students who need them most.
Sixteen Schools Made It. What About Everyone Else?
BCPS Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn called the rankings something “our entire community can celebrate,” crediting students, educators and families.
He is right.
The achievement deserves celebration.
But the announcement should also become an opportunity for examination.
If 16 Broward schools are among the nation’s top 26%, the community deserves to know what separates those schools from Broward schools that aren’t.
Is it student selection?
Course availability?
Teacher vacancies and experience?
Advanced Placement, Cambridge, IB and dual-enrollment participation?
Graduation rates?
State testing?
Socioeconomic differences?
School funding and resources?
Or some combination of all of them?
Those answers matter particularly in a public school system whose responsibility isn’t simply to produce some nationally recognized schools. Its responsibility is to provide an excellent education to every child, regardless of ZIP code, race or family income.
The question therefore isn’t whether Millennium, Pompano Beach, McFatter, Cypress Bay and the other recognized schools deserve their accolades.
They do.
The question is whether Broward County can take what is working inside those schools and make those opportunities available throughout the district.
Sixteen schools made the list. That’s the headline.
But for the Westside Gazette, the story may be the schools that didn’t and the question Broward County must answer is: Why?
