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The State of the States

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By Anne O'Brien on January 12, 2011

According to Quality Counts 2011 (which claims to be the most comprehensive ongoing assessment of the state of American education), overall the states have earned an average of a "C" for their educational efforts. For the third straight year, Maryland earned the highest grade in the nation - B+. Massachusetts and New York followed, both earning Bs.

Quality Counts grades states on six indices - "Chance for Success," "K-12 Achievement," "Standards, Assessment and Accountability," "Transitions and Alignment," "Teaching Profession" and "School Finance." Each index includes several indicators designed to capture the true state of the state. For example, the "K-12 Achievement" index includes 18 indicators that capture not only current academic achievement (based on NAEP data) but also improvement and performance gaps between low-income students and their peers.

While the national average of the six indices is a C, there is wide variation between the indices. For example, the national average on "Standards, Assessment and Accountability" was a B. However, in "K-12 Achievement" (which some would argue is the most important component of the indices) it is a D+, with strong showings by some individual states, including Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey.

Okay...now what? One might ask what, aside from awarding bragging rights to high performers, the purpose of this data really is.

As was pointed out at the event releasing this report, the main value of its data comes from it actually being used. Presenters shared the story of New Mexico, which one year came in dead last in these rankings. That status gave educators a great opportunity to have frank conversations with policymakers about WHY the state performed so poorly - and helped them frame policies to help the state improve. [To get more information on an individual state, check out the state report cards map. More detailed state-level reports are also available for purchase].

One broad observation at the national level that could be of use: Of the 20 states that earned As or A-s in "Standards, Assessment and Accountability," 14 received D+s or lower in "K-12 Achievement." To me, that suggests that system-level change, without a corresponding focus on what is happening at the classroom level, won't have the impact desired. As we work to move forward with the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and as the federal government works to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, I think we would be wise to pay attention to what we have learned here.

Link to this story: http://www.learningfirst.org/state-states

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What does it say about the

Submitted by Nick on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 07:03

What does it say about the state of grade inflation that this sentence is newsworthy: "[O]verall the states have earned an average of a 'C' for their educational efforts."? Why would we expect the average of any large group (of people, states, data, or whathaveyou) to score anything other than "average"? (Or--perhaps more to the point--what's the use of using a letter grade system if "C" is not SUPPOSED to mean "average", and if the goal is not to compare elements to each other--thereby implying some will do better than others and most will fall in the middle?)

This fear of being anything less than "the best" (at everything, and the logically impossible belief that everyone must be the best) really hamstrings our ability to talk sensibly about our standards and priorities, especially in times of scarce resources. Being brave enough to say, "we AREN'T going to do this" forces us to recognize our limits and allows us to focus on what really matters, rather than pretending that we can (or should) be all things to everyone, and always come up short; leaving us to wonder why we don't have credibility about our claims of a need to address a "crisis" (the ever-enduring crisis of everyone not being best at everything).

A nice analogue can be found in the comments to this entry: http://www.learningfirst.org/charter-choices-good-food-free-food-no-food . Are we willing to say "it's not our responsibility to feed our neediest children"? Whether it should be or not is a legitimate debate, but until it's framed in such stark terms, we allow ourselves to avoid the question.

We need to ask ourselves the question, "Are we willing to admit that the standards we've set are (low enough to be) reachable by everyone (no matter what other issues they may have in their lives)?" Once we can do so, we can then face up to answering that question, either by saying "we are, because we've put all the resources in place to allow everyone to overcome those other obstacles" or "we are, because some things (people, standards, etc.) aren't worth the effort to get them higher".

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Nick - Fair point about 'C'

Submitted by Anne O'Brien on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 18:26

Nick - Fair point about 'C' being average...and excellent question with "What's the use of using a letter grade system if "C" is not SUPPOSED to mean "average", and if the goal is not to compare elements to each other--thereby implying some will do better than others and most will fall in the middle?"

I'm not sure that letter grades work that way any more, though. Whether they should or not is a different issue, but I think that letter grades tend to correspond with percentage of something that is "mastered" these days. For better or worse. And so these grades are a question of standards. If we believe that we have set standards that can be reached by everyone (potentially meaning, as you suggest, LOW standards), then the fact that we have a "C" is extremely discouraging.

I think that you raise a separate issue with:

"Being brave enough to say, 'we AREN'T going to do this' forces us to recognize our limits and allows us to focus on what really matters, rather than pretending that we can (or should) be all things to everyone, and always come up short; leaving us to wonder why we don't have credibility about our claims of a need to address a 'crisis' (the ever-enduring crisis of everyone not being best at everything)."

That is a really important point...and we don't talk about it nearly enough. Ultimately, we don't have a national goal for what public schools should do - or at least, I don't know of one. We have a sense that they are to improve the academics of a student - what does that look like? We have a sense that they should provide our economy with an educated workforce. We have a sense that they produce good citizens - but what does THAT look like? Social studies standardized assessments? Demonstrated tolerance by students? Efforts to integrate schools so they reflect the society in which we live? Hard discussions, indeed. But we'll never get there if we don't know where we're trying to go.

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I think the second part of

Submitted by Nick on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 06:01

I think the second part of your comment only underscores the problem with the first part of your comment. If letter grades are (now?) supposed to represent achievement of a standard, but we don't know what that standard is, then how can we claim some groups are meeting them better than others? What is the standard (i.e., what are the groups being evaluated "supposed" to be doing?) in order to merit an "A" in this study?

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