HowWellAre States Educating Our Neediest Children The Fordham Report 2006 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Reader s Guide 7 Acknowledgments 7 The Future of Education Reform 9 Chester E Finn Jr Measuring Education Reform Results 12 STATE REVIEWS Alabama 24 Alaska 26 Arizona 28 Arkansas 30 California 32 Colorado 34 Connecticut 36 Delaware 38 Florida 40 Georgia 42 Hawaii 44 Idaho 46 Illinois 48 Indiana 50 Iowa 52 Kansas 54 Kentucky 56 Louisiana 58 Maine 60 Maryland 62 Massachusetts 64 Michigan 66 Minnesota 68 Mississippi 70 Missouri 72 Montana 74 Nebraska 76 Nevada 78 New Hampshire 80 New Jersey 82 New Mexico 84 New York 86 North Carolina 88 North Dakota 90 Ohio 92 Oklahoma 94 Oregon 96 Pennsylvania 98 Rhode Island 100 South Carolina 102 South Dakota 104 Tennessee 106 Texas 108 Utah 110 Vermont 112 Virginia 114 Washington 116 West Virginia 118 Wisconsin 120 Wyoming 122 APPENDIX Detailed Source Information 124 TABLES 1 Student Achievement by Rank 4 2 Achievement Trends for Poor and Minority Students 5 3 Education Reform Grades by Rank 5 4 Overall State Grades for Student Achievement Achievement Trends and Education Reform 6 5 Student Achievement Indicators and National Results 12 6 National Performance on Student Achievement Indicators by Major Student Subgroups 13 7 Trends in Student Achievement Indicators and National Results 15 8 Student Achievement Grades by State 16 9 Achievement Trends by State 17 10 National Education Reform Results by Category 18 11 Does Education Reform Drive Gains in Student Achievement 21 12 Education Reform Grades for Each Indicator and State 22 FIGURES 1 Definitions for Trends in Student Achievement Ratings 15 2 Curricular Content Indicators and National Results 19 3 Standards Based Reform Indicators and National Results 20 4 School Choice Indicators and National Results 20 Executive Summary Welcome to the Thomas B Fordham Foundation s first ever comprehensive analysis of education reform and results in the 50 states For each of them this report examines 1 Student achievement with a focus on poor and minority students 2 Achievement trends since the early 1990s for these same students and 3 Reform efforts centering on curriculum standards and school choice Student Achievement Circa 2005 The Foundation developed its student achievement grades based primarily on results from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP in reading mathematics and science for low income African American and Hispanic students But a quarter of each state s grade is based on minority high school graduation rates and statewide passing rates on Advanced Placement AP exams The focus is on poor and minority students because historically they have been most likely to fall through school system cracks and are the focus of nationwide gap closing efforts Detailed information about our indicators and why we chose them is available in the body of the report The achievement results are bleak The average state grade is D three states flunked and none earned better than D But these low marks were not the result of an impossible grading scheme Were the same scale applied to white students the national average would be a B That in a nutshell is the achievement gap in the United States today For example only 7 percent of African American eighth graders are at or above proficient in science and just 8 percent have reached that level in math On the other hand 38 percent of white eighth graders are at or above proficiency in science and 39 percent in math Still some states do substantially better by their poor and minority students than others the stronger or at least less weak performers include such large diverse states as Virginia New Jersey and Maryland In Virginia for example 26 percent of Hispanic fourth graders are at or above proficient in reading and 22 percent of Hispanic eighth graders reach that level in science Of course these are still desperately low numbers hardly worth celebrating While southern states dominate the bottom of the list there are a few surprises there too Illinois Nebraska Nevada and Rhode Island all rank especially low in the academic performances of their disadvantaged students In Illinois for example only 9 percent of black fourth graders are at or above proficient in reading and just 10 percent of low income eighth graders have reached that level in math This means that most of the state s poor and minority children are ill prepared for success in later life Education Reform Based on data for nine indicators in three categories curricular content standardsbased reform and school choice Fordham s education reform grade provides a glimpse at each state s aggressiveness in improving its schools in recent years The Foundation would have examined state efforts at deregulating schools and educators as well but there is so little movement on this front that reliable data are unavailable Here three states earn honor grades Arizona California and New Mexico while half receive D s or F s The national average is a C The cellar is occupied by Vermont once considered to be a forerunner in education reform due to its innovative assessments and standards Achievement Trends Amid the current woeful results there is some good news 31 states have made at least minimal progress over the past decade and a half The Foundation examined whether the states made statistically significant progress in getting more poor African American or Hispanic students over the proficiency bar on NAEP between the time it started participating in that assessment and 2005 State level math and reading testing commenced in 1992 and science in 1996 but participation was optional until 2003 and some states came on board later than others Eight states California Delaware Florida Massachusetts New Jersey New York Texas and Washington showed the strongest gains over that period making statistically significant progress in at least two subjects reading math or science and by at least two subgroups African American Hispanic or low income students or significant progress by all three subgroups and in at least two subjects At the other end of the spectrum thirteen states made no statistically significant progress with these populations at all Five of them Illinois Iowa Nebraska Oklahoma and Wisconsin also have some of the lowest achievement scores in the country making their lack of progress all the more troubling In general states strongest performances came in the standards based reform
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