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Every other year, 4th and 8th graders are tested in reading and math, and some states produce far more top achievers than others. The Daily Beast ranks which states are acing, and which are failing.
It’s already tough being a kid, from bullies to homework to mom and dad’s rules. Now mix in standardized testing, which has only increased in importance in the decade since No Child Left Behind.
The biggest standardized test is the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which measures students based on their exam proficiency in reading and math. With 52 different school systems, NAEP testing is the only comprehensive, if imperfect, gauge for comparing how America’s children are educated.
So The Daily Beast decided to use this enormous amount of consistent data to try to figure out which states are collectively doing the best job educating their kids. The methodology for this list was created with guidance from a half dozen of the nation’s leading education research experts, and relied heavily on the research of Bert Stoneberg, NAEP State Coordinator for Idaho.
NAEP testing is controversial. How should we interpret the results? And how much do a child’s, or state’s score, reflect the diligence, intelligence or affluence of the parent, versus the strengths or weaknesses of the school systems? Are the kids that do best, in fact, smarter? What does it mean to be smart, anyway?
For instance, the top five performing states on this list have a median household income (not adjusted for cost of living) of roughly $60,000, and 21 percent of people over age 25 have a bachelor’s degree; the bottom five are at $44,000 and 14 percent, respectively, according to 2009 US Census figures. Children who perform better on NAEP tests also tend to come from states with lower levels of student poverty.
“Think about all the things that are correlated to parental income and education,” says Kevin Welner, education professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, “where you live, whether there’s lead paint on the walls, whether the child has good dental care and health care is correlated, other responsibilities the child might have—whether it’s working a job or child care of other siblings—we could go on and on and on for all the things that make a difference.”
Meanwhile, for all the clarity that all this testing data provides, state policies can also affect how it fares relative to its peers. In Florida, for instance, between 14 and 23 percent of the weakest-reading 3rd graders who performed poorly on state exams have been held back since 2002, according to a 2010 study by Columbia University professor Madhabi Chatterji—a far higher rate than for other grades. In other words, Florida steps up its hold-backs as they are on the cusp of taking their first NAEP assessment tests.
Methodology
Stoneberg’s analysis of NAEP results shows that a side-by-side ranking of states would tell us very little about how the states stack up against one another. The NAEP assessment is a sample—a set number of students in each state take the test, and each student takes only a few of the possible NAEP questions—and statewide conclusions are extrapolated from the results. The sampling error for the specific test scores, while small, is still too great to accurately compare states side by side.
Gallery: Ranking Every State By Kids' Test Scores
So instead, we measured the percent of students who, for the 2009 results, scored at an advanced level or higher for 4th grade math, 8th grade math, 4th grade reading, and 8th grade reading. As a second component, we then took each state one by one, determining the number of states that performed better and worse at a statistically significant level, and averaging those figures. Here are two examples:
Massachusetts
4th grade students at or above the advanced level, Math: 12 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 0
8th grade students at or above the advanced level, Math: 17 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 0
4th grade students at or above the advanced level, Reading: 13 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 0
8th grade students at or above the advanced level, Reading: 5 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 0
Average number of states that performed better than Massachusetts, per test: 0
Mississippi
4th grade students at or above the advanced level, Math: 2 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 47
8th grade students at or above the advanced level, Math: 2 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 48
4th grade students at or above the advanced level, Reading: 4 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 35
8th grade students at or above the advanced level, Reading: 1 percent
Number of states that performed better, at a statistically significant level: 46
Average number of states that performed better than Mississippi, per test: 44
It is worth noting that the NAEP does not control for differences in state education policies or background differences among students, and that the terms “advanced” and “proficient,” in the NAEP world, are strictly technical. They are defined here for math and here for reading.
Research and reporting by Clark Merrefield
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zapzinger
That would be the States with the highest percentage of Asian kids.
Sajwert
ZAP, as usual, you are a #1 Ahole. Had you bothered to look through the gallery of states and their statistics, you would have seen that Asian children were outnumbered by and large. In fact, in one state picture, I saw three little girls wearing the headscarves which implied they were probably Muslim children.
You must get up awfully early so as to be prepared to make nasty, snarky remarks before anyone else gets their 2cents in. What a life you must not have.
cryptoad
That's funny ZappyPoo,,,,, same ole Teabagger dukey,,,,,, if your had really looked you would have seen that most the top ten are Blue States and most of the bottom ten are Red States....... I doubt you can draw any conclusions from that.
Prometheus
Toad - But when they do the, "How tattered is your Bible, how clean is your gun?" survey, the results will be opposite! So NAH!
Prometheus
What's most important to the ziptwit is being first in line, not content. Oh wait, that's what you meant by #1, ahole! I get it, never mind!
iamlookingover
You have the vocabulary of an Alaskan.
Prometheus
I refudiate that!
tazdelaney
right you are, zap. when i lived in ontario, oregon, in the late 60s there had never been a single oriental who failed a grade there. likewise with the large basque population there.
liberalisnotadirtyword
While interesting to note that the majority of top scorers are in the Northeast, these are pretty horrifying statistics. 5% of 8th graders in the top rated state read at an advanced level? 5%? So, not only are we not actually teaching our kids anything, we're not even teaching them how to take tests very well. I hate the notion of gauging a teacher's performance on their student's ability to take tests, but somebody better figure out some way of judging their merit. Anybody ever had a really bad teacher? A really good one? Either/or can quite literally make or break a child's education.
Chuckv
You are reading too much into the term "advanced". Tests like these can only give kids' rankings compared to other kids. The test can be made more or less difficult so that more or less children fall into the "advanced" category. One could, for example, make a physics test where Einstein scored "average".
While we should do whatever we can to improve education, the root cause of this problem is outside the classroom. We do not value education and scholarship very much. Ignorance of biology is practically a prerequisite for a GOP presidential nomination. Asian Americans are not smarter than the rest of us. They just come from societies that value learning and have not been here long enough to lose that part of their cultural heritage.
Prometheus
Wrong!
1. You'd only get Einstein to score average in a class full of Einsteins or better. Otherwise the best performer only scores average when he is measured alone, same for the worst.
2. A look at the explanations of the terms "proficient" & "advanced" on the NAEP page linked to the article clearly shows you are completely wrong.
It is NOT advanced "compared to the others on a scale."
For the purposes of this article, both proficient and advanced mean "clearing certain carefully enumerated hurdles in and of themselves."
For math: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/achieveall.asp
For reading: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieveall.asp
So, YOU do NOT place advance, or even proficient, in the reading of this article!
iamlookingover
Nice job, Prom!!!
FauxHunter
@chuck
I agree whole heatedly
Though I believe all forms or expertise should be valued
(no shame in working with your hands in my book)
I Strongly believe we should not be a country where a third of it Devalues education, particularly science and math, as are fearful of it being some form of heresy!!! (middle-age papistry here we come...even the Catholic pope has given up on this bizarre line of thinking...and they invented it)
The weird thing is most right wing candidates Are Actually the "elites" who have Ivy league education
BUT NOT
based on Merit but on Wealth and Family connection (true aristocrats)
while those that earn It (the True "pull yourself up by your bootstraps Americans") are denigrated for it...what a world...
robjm1
I'd love to read this article but there's a giant Starubucks ad with no close button blocking about 1/3 of it.
Prometheus
I can help.
I have no ads on my page, because I use Firefox, with both the Flashblock and Adblock plugins installed.
I get about zero ads on any page. Flash is there, but does not run unless I click on it. Or I can allow any page to show the ads & flash, which I do do for sports sites. No shit, no ads! Give it a try, you can run Firefox and IE if you want to switch over slowly.
dooreen
I think there should be a survey comparing colleges 20 years ago to today.
I couldn't believe how quiet the cafeteria was.
People don't seem to share information or speak to each other the way they used to. It is not just in colleges but I really noticed in the college. Everyone is sitting around with ipods in their ears. You ask a question they tell you to google it. It feels like everyone is walking on egg shells especially in the library. I think the technology has good and bad features.
I find the men professors will speak and will give you feedback about your strengths and weaknesses, but some of the women instructors really make a person feel hopeless, they are telling you off before you get a chance to word the question, they take much longer to mark the papers and keep you engaged.
If this is what it is like in the primary grades, I think we are going to have a real problem in the future, especially with people with normal intelligence getting misdiagnosed.
I hate to go back to the alleged Arizona shooter, but there are videos of him, playing the sax at a school event, now why couldn't he have been included like that as he got older. I find it believable that the kids are terrified when they are in school, and I think fear breeds fear. Fear of being homeless and totally alone.
Prometheus
Hey we got a cry for help here! Anybody give a crap?
Prometheus
Fear of having to somehow force yourself to avoid the cookies and snack cakes aisle in the grocery store, and stay within 5% of a normal healthy body weight....
iamlookingover
Oh, Lord. Go outside and run around the block. I think you are so nasty due to cabin fever.
Prometheus
I ran five miles this morning already, thanks.
iamlookingover
Then, must be your soiled diaper. You are a cry baby.
Prometheus
Right except I'm not crybabying about anything. You are not the brightest light here.
iamlookingover
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. And you are never nasty to other commenters. Nice going.
Prometheus
Her comments are pitiful and sad, at best. You enjoyed that? Afraid of being alone, you enjoyed that?
iamlookingover
So, you enjoy being a bully. Nice.
Prometheus
If you think a sentence in a post is bullying, you really need to get out of the house more.
iamlookingover
My theory is the top states have a higher ratio of parents with advanced education degrees.
Prometheus
That's an opinion, not a theory. You may not know the difference.
And even as a guess it's hollow. It does not take an advanced education degree to guide a child to books instead of TV.
iamlookingover
It does not take an advanced degree. But there is a correlation between the two.
That is my hypothesis.
Prometheus
A guess and an assumption of a correlation to that guess does not create a hypothesis.
I've got a funny feeling you might not score so well on the test yourself.
SocialSecretion
Plus, not as many of them teach their kids fairy tales about how humans walked with dinosaurs, the son of god was magical, and that our president is a socialist Muslim.
Prometheus
Good point, Michelle Bachmann has five kids and runs a foster care mill!
iamlookingover
Metaphysical. Look it up.
Even you are part nature and supernature. But you remain as close-minded as a rock.
iamlookingover
I will not have discussions with No ops*. And I am soon ready to give up on those whose only contribution is bullying others. Prom and Socia.
*No op. Look it up.
Prometheus
iamlookingover - Supernature? Is that where we get Superman?
Prometheus
Be gone!
scientist57
Massachusetts and Vermont #1 and #2? Probly a dam librul conspeercy.
Prometheus
Mass ain't that liberal. They continually elect GOP governors and of course Sen Brown. Boston area is liberal, the West of the state is not.
JOEAMERICA
If we used geography as a gauge 95% of the US is conservative. Who cares what city folk think anyway!? JK......
charliebrown
If I could make a correction ... the Boston suburbs are far from liberal ... that is the area that gave Scott Brown his win. In the most western county of Massachusetts with 32 cities and towns, Scott Brown won only 1.
MistyKnight
Hmm. Why were all the red states at the bottom? And what's up with D.C.? How is that voucher thing working out for you guys?
timeflies
Demographics and the *shift* in demographics, respectively, over the past few decades cannot be ignored. Throwing wads of money at (failed, corrupt) public school systems clearly isn't the culprit. Low expectations, lack of parental involvement, and a tradition of counting on 'the village' the raise one's children play a part, as does a long held belief that someone doesn't have to be smart to find ways to make money, which is very southern and which is not the same as being in the professional workplace, earning a steady income. However, DC and red states do tend to rank higher in one area: crime.
lostblackdog
Interesting how states with high levels of poverty as well as large immigrant populations scored so poorly. Politics aren't necessarily the deciding factor, rather it's merely a correlation. Perhaps some reasons that many of the states ranked poorly are due to a lack of academic funding, jaded and underpaid teachers, as well as a higher population of students who may have severe language barriers. I would have expected California to rank higher than Georgia, but given the environmental factors, I'm not terribly surprised. I will admit however, that West Virginia appears to be the exception to my theory. C'est la vie!
sgreger1
As an educator and a librarian, I find that we really don't want to "teach" our kids as much as we went our teachers to teach to the standards and to the test. I don't see it as red states vs. blue states, but communities that aren't willing to fund education because they don't understand it and want teachers to be totally accountable for their kids (in terms of what they learn as well as how much it might cost them (the parents). The parents in the school dist. I work in don't have the highest salaries (though there are certainly opportunities for those who strive to make good money with good educations). The problem is, those parents tend to whine about how much tech levies cost them and how much they aren't willing to pay). And, overall, I think our nation doesn't really value education - I don't feel we put our money where our mouths are. We want to compete globally, but we pay our garbage men more - it's been that way for frickin decades.
Zeek50
Sence the whole country is being flushed down the toilet; as far as education is concerned. I do believe they are just saying these are the smartest compared to the rest.
The tests are continually being dumbed down so the system doesn't have to call a kid stupid. Forget what it does to the kids later on in life. We wouldn't want to hurt their self esteem now. Or make a teacher look like they aren't doing their job.
And i definitely don't agree with Fla either. Teach them , Don't manipulate them for the sake of making yourselves look good.
teacher14
I have never posted a comment on anything- anywhere ! But felt unbelieveably obligated to do so here. So many of the comments I've read are so negative and non-productive! If you would all give half of the time you spend leaving bashing comments to one another and instead volunteer in your local schools and classrooms, you will see how teachers have so much to do with so little time. The class sizes are large and the array of knowledge amongst students differs greatly. I have administered the NAEP test and seriously doubt if most parents could pass it at a 4th or 5th grade level. Most parents have NO IDEA what is expected of their children by their state department when it comes to standards they should master. Do your homework! Know what is expected. Be involved in your child's education and help them achieve to their fullest potential!!! Quit griping and complaining and do something about it locally by volunteering! From an informed teacher and parent!
JOEAMERICA
Having lived in many of the states above and below the mid point of this scale I must say I prefer the ones ranked below 25. I prefer to live where people are friendly, good-hearted, neighborly and use good old fashioned common-sense. Also instead of spending $15000 a year in property taxes and $7000/child to send them to private school I would rather the government stay out of my pocket and let me decide where my money is best spent.
As far as our education system is concerned the government needs to stay out of that too. Get the children's brains full of oxygen with exercise in the morning, since Phys Ed has been removed from most curriculum. Hold our children to higher standards by pushing them with more advanced learning. Allow those that can achieve greatness to achieve it and try to bring as many along as possible in the process. Don't let the children "left behind" drag the children ahead of them down. Give them all the opportunity to be the best they can be.
Wynwyn
The red states are at the bottom cause Republicans don't care about educating the middle class or the poor. Their bottom line is PROFITS for their corporations. Prometheus-Looks like you stole fire from the heavens, but kept it to yourself.
noddle islander
Consider these ratios. Within the group of industrialized nations America's public school students rank 40th for math and science score. The sad corollary - America public school spending ranks # 1 on per capita student basis. Ooooops I meant to say--- public investment. Sorry for the disturbing peer group comparison. Party on...
keltoid
Prometheus just proved he or she doesn't know what they are talking about re: Mass. not being liberal. Overall, it is quite liberal/moderate and yes, intelligent. Obviously - being the point of the article. I knew Mass. would likely be first. And let's hear it for NH at #4! Huzzah! And I suppose NH is mostly liberal because they have a Democratic governor? It is really quite backw... I mean, conservative here still.
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