(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Later this week the American Legislative Exchange Council will release Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform written by yours truly, Dan Lips and Andy LeFevre.
As suggested by the title, we grade each state by their academic performance, their academic gains and their K-12 reform policies. On the later, we use a “poll of polls” technique and average the grades assigned for particular policy areas on academic standards, teacher quality, charter school laws, private choice, digital education etc.
Sneak peak: a B+ was the highest grade.
On the performance and progress, we utilize NAEP with an eye to maximizing comparability between states. After all, no one can be shocked that Connecticut has higher NAEP scores than Mississippi, given the huge disparities in income between the two states.
We therefore judge each state based on the scores of free and reduced lunch eligible general education students on all four main NAEP exams: 4th grade reading and math, 8th grade reading and math. We use the period for which all 50 states and the District of Columbia have participated in NAEP (2003-2009). Using free or reduced lunch eligibility keeps the income range of students under a known limit, whereas non-free and reduced lunch kids can vary in income from still relatively hardscrabble to billionaires.
We made no effort to control for race or ethnicity despite the well-known existence of racial achievement gaps. This is because we believe that such gaps can in fact be closed. We believe that the gaps exist due to policy and cultural factors, all of which can be changed. Schools in particular are in the business (or should be) of promoting a strong academic culture focused on learning-aka controlling the culture of the school.
You’ve never heard of a racial combat effectiveness gap in the United States Marines Corps because it doesn’t exist. The fact that the Marines are a well-led organization with a strong culture has a great deal to do with that, as does the fact that every Marine is a part of the Corps by choice.
In any case, we do not claim that our NAEP rankings provide perfect comparability just enormously better comparability than looking at raw NAEP scores.
So you are dying to know whether your state rocked or sucked wind in the rankings. Calm down- pace yourself!
All will be revealed later in the week.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
I like the comparison to the marines.
I like it as well and it reminds me that the federal government has a pretty good sized, in the tens of thousands I think, kids in the education system it runs for diplomatic and military personnel stationed outside the U.S. Any notion how they’re doing and whether the racial achievement gap exists among their kids?
State-level mean test score by parents’ race and level of education provide interesting hints about institutional causes. Last I looked (about ten years ago) the State with the highest mean score (children of college-educated white parents, children of high school-educated white parents) was Washington, DC, (which the NCES counts as a “state”). The State with the lowest score (children of high school-educated white parents, children of high school-educated black parents) was Hawaii.
As the fraction of a State’s total enrollement assigned to large districts increases, overall NAEP 8th grade Math composite, Numbers and Operations subtest, and Algebra and Functions subtest scores (proficiency, mean, percentile) fall, while the correlation (% large district, score) is positive for children of college-educated white parents.
Political control of school harms most the children of the least politically adept parents.
Who’s the doll? Nice back definition.
Read and write reviews on various money making programs, affiliate marketing and traffic generation technique.