As a new political and policy era dawns in Washington, the status of the nation’s schools remains stable, though still earning a grade of C from Quality Counts 2017, the 21st annual report card issued by the Education Week Research Center.
The C corresponds to a score of 74.2, which is nearly identical to the 74.4 the nation posted in 2016, when it also received a C. The steadiness of national results, notwithstanding, a handful of states saw their scores increase or decline by a full point or more.
Quality Counts grades the states and the nation on educational performance across a range of key indicators, issuing overall A-F grades based on a traditional 100-point scale.
The overall grade is based on three custom indices developed by the Research Center:
- The Chance-for-Success Index uses a cradle-to-career perspective to examine the role of education in promoting positive outcomes throughout an individual’s lifetime.
- The school finance analysis evaluates spending on education and equity in funding across districts within a state.
- The K-12 Achievement Index, last updated in 2016, scores states on current academic performance, change over time, and poverty-based gaps.
Massachusetts takes first place among the states for the third year in a row, with a B and a score of 86.5. It’s followed by five states earning grades of B: New Jersey (85.6), Vermont (83.8), New Hampshire (83.4), Maryland (82.8), and Connecticut (82.7).
At the other end of the spectrum, Nevada is at the bottom of the list as it was in 2016, receiving a D and a score of 65.0. Mississippi (65.8) and New Mexico (66.3) also receive grades of D. Grades and scores for those three states remain relatively unchanged from last year’s outcomes.
Overall, the majority of states (34) land grades between C-minus and C-plus.
Montana saw the biggest improvement between 2016 and 2017, with a gain of 1.3 points. New Hampshire and South Carolina also post increases of about one point. The uptick for New Hampshire places its overall score in the top five for the second time since Quality Counts’ revamped grading framework was introduced in 2015. By contrast, Alaska (-1.2) and Kansas (-1.0) are the only states to see their summative scores drop by a point or more. Alaska’s decline can be attributed to a substantial drop in its results on the Chance-for-Success Index, while Kansas experienced a marked fall-off in school finance.
For more analysis, see
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/01/04/nations-schools-get-middling-grade-on-quality.html
For state by state results, see
http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2017/2017-state-education-grades-map.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2
