Achieve, Inc., is an education advocacy organization created by the nation's governors and business leaders. Achieve focuses on state education policies aimed at preparing students for college and work readiness.

www.achieve.org

For each of five categories, Achieve determines whether states have:

• A policy in place
• Plans to implement a policy
• Have no policy in place and no plans to implement a policy

• How well states are preparing their students for postsecondary education and the workforce
• Whether the standards are explicit and publicly available

Achieve asked each state whether it had policies in place, or planned to put policies in place, in the following five categories:

• Aligning high school standards with real-world expectations
• Aligning high school graduation requirements with college and workplace expectations
• Using existing high school assessments for college admissions or placement
• Holding high schools accountable for graduating students that are college and work ready
• Developing a Pre-K–Grade 16 longitudinal data system 

Education Next, a peer-reviewed education journal of research and opinion published by the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, and edited by scholars from the Fordham Foundation and Manhattan Institute among others.

www.hoover.org/publications/ednext

Each state’s proficiency standards are compared to NAEP standards to determine if they are as rigorous

• Achievement level of students in each state
• Quality of the state assessments
• Quality of the content standards

• Alignment of state standards and state assessments

Rigor is based on a state’s definition of proficient compared to NAEP:

• For each test the difference between the percentage of students who were proficient on NAEP and the percentage reported to be proficient on the state’s own assessment was calculated.
• States where more students reached proficiency on the state assessments than on NAEP received lower grades than states where fewer students reached proficiency on the state assessment than on NAEP.

The grades are useful in determining if your state’s proficiency standards are as rigorous as NAEP's benchmarks.

National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a non-profit advocacy organization that focuses on expanding opportunities for Americans to pursue higher education.

www.highereducation.org/

Whether schools are preparing their K–12 students for higher education.

Note: This is one of six criteria used to evaluate states and the nation on how effective they are at providing Americans with an education beyond high school. However, it is the only criterion that focused on K–12 education.

• Quality of the state standards and assessments 
• Alignment of state standards and state assessments

States are compared in four areas:

• High School Completion
• K–12 Course Taking
• K–12 Student Achievement based on
  • NAEP proficiency scores
  • College Entrance Exam scores
  • Advanced Placement Exams scores
• Teacher Quality based on
  • The number of students taught by qualified teachers

The report card is an indicator for how well your state is preparing high school graduates for higher education. It also examines various indicators about the state of higher education in each state.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the primary entity within the U.S. Department of Education for collecting and analyzing data related to education

Reading and math, 2007

Writing (Grade 8 and 12), 2008

Reading and math, 2009

Science and Arts (Grade 8), 2009

Student achievement in each state is reported as an overall score and at four achievement levels. Results are also disaggregated by various student groups.

• Quality of the state standards and assessments
• Alignment of state standards and state assessments.

Scores range from zero to 500 in math and reading, and zero to 300 in science and writing. The scores correspond to achievement levels: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced, which indicate the level of knowledge and skills students demonstrate.

NAEP shows how well students in your state perform against NAEP’s standards over time. It can also be used to compare student performance in your state to other states.

Education Week, a non-profit, weekly newspaper for education professionals and policymakers.

www.edweek.org

January 2009

January 2010

How a child’s future educational and economic success differs by the state they are born and raised in.

Quality or effectiveness of each state’s education system

States' rankings are based on how they measure up to the national average on each of 13 indicators in three categories:

• The early years:
  • Based on student demographic characteristics and the percent of students enrolled in early childhood programs.
• The school-age years:
  • Based on 4th grade reading scores, 8th grade math scores, and high school graduation rates. 
• The adults years:
  • Based on postsecondary enrollment and completion rates and income and employment rates.

The index is an indication of how likely a child born in your state will experience success as an adult. It contains many social and economic factors, including education.

Education Week, a non-profit, weekly newspaper for education professionals and policymakers.

www.edweek.org

January 2008

January 2009

How well states have defined what young people need to know and be able to do to move seamlessly from Pre–K, through elementary and secondary school, and on to postsecondary school or the workforce.

• Quality or effectiveness of each state’s education system
• Quality of the standards

The rating is useful in determining how well students perform in your state on various K-12 learning and attainment outcomes.

Education Week, a non-profit, weekly newspaper for education professionals and policymakers.

www.edweek.org

January 2009

January 2011

How well states have defined what young people need to know and be able to do to move seamlessly from Pre–K, through elementary and secondary school, and on to postsecondary school or the workforce.

• Quality or effectiveness of each state’s education system
• Quality of the standards

A ranking system based on whether or not states have adopted policies in 15 different areas in three categories:

• Early-Childhood Education: Policies to define if students are ready to start elementary school
• Postsecondary Education: Policies to define if high school graduates are ready for postsecondary education
• Economy and Workforce: Policies to define if high school graduates are ready for the workforce

The rating is useful in determining if your state is active in aligning student expectations at each stage of education. By examining pre-kindergarten on up, Education Week presents a larger view of alignment policies than Achieve's Expectations Gap, which focuses on high school to college and workplace. 

American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a labor union that represents classroom teachers across the United States

www.aft.org

 April 2008

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The extent to which state standards are clear, specific, content and based.

• Quality of the assessments.
• Rigor of the assessments.

Whether or not each standard meets AFT’s “Strong” criteria.

For a standard to meet AFT’s “Strong” criteria it must be:

• Detailed, explicit, and content and skills based
• Accessible through the state’s Web site
• Grade specific (e.g., grade 4) not clustered (e.g., elementary school)
• Cover specific content for each subject (e.g., geometry and algebra in math)

The rating examines whether your state’s standards documents are clearly written and accessible for teachers and the public, according to AFT's criteria, and enables comparisons across states.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a federation of U.S. businesses representing businesses of all sizes and sectors. The report card is a collaboration with the Center for American Progress -- a think tank dedicated to progressive ideas and policies -- and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research -- a think tank concerned with the institutions of freedom and democratic capitalism.

www.uschamber.com

February 2007

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• 4th & 8th grade math and reading
• Advanced placement English, calculus, biology, and U.S. history

How well states prepare their students for the 21st century.

The resources and programs states provide their schools

States receive a letter grade in each of nine categories:

• Academic achievement
• Academic achievement of low-income and minority students
• Return on investment
• Truth in advertising about student proficiency
• Rigor of standards
• Post-secondary and workforce readiness
• 21st century teaching force
• Flexibility in management and policy
• Data quality

Letter grades are given for each of the nine categories.

Several indicators were adapted or taken directly from other report cards. For example, Academic achievement (NAEP); Truth in advertising (Education Next); Rigor of standards (Fordham, Achieve, Education Week); and Data quality (Data Quality Campaign).

The Chamber's "rate on investment" was calculated by adjusting each state's current educational expenditures for student poverty, students with special needs, and cost of living, and comparing the adjusted expenditure to an average of overall 4th and 8th grade math and reading scores.

"Flexibility and management" includes indicators for "strength of charter school law", the existence of a "virtual school", and principal autonomy.  

The report card pulls together several indicators of students' academic preparation and teacher quality that appear separately elsewhere. It futher attempts to show a relationship between education dollars and NAEP performance, as well as management flexibility, which reflect the business sensibilities of the Chamber.

National Institute for Early Education Research, a non-profit center located in Rutgers University's Graduate School of Education. NIEER supports early childhood education initiatives.

www.nieer.org

March 2008

Spring 2009

Early childhood school readiness

Whether states met the minimum criteria needed to ensure an effective pre-k program.

How policies have been implemented

• Access students have to Pre-K programs
• Effectiveness of Pre-K programs

States’ rankings are based on the number of benchmarks for which they have instituted polices.

States' ratings were based on whether or not they have policies that correspond to the 10 benchmarks for a quality Pre-K program.

• Early learning standards
• Teachers degree
• Teacher specialized training
• Assistant teacher degree
• Teacher in-service
• Maximum class size
• Staff-child ratio
• Required screening/referral and support services
• Meals
• Required monitoring

The rating helps you determine how active your state is at expanding access to high-quality pre-kindergarten education according to NIEER criteria.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a non-profit education organization that focuses on achievement gaps and promotes expansion of choice and voucher programs.

www.edexcellence.net

November 2006

n/a

Reading, math, and science

How well states are educating their poor and minority students

States are given letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F) in each of three major categories; Student Achievement, Achievement Trends, and Education Reform. The grades are then averaged to create a cumulative grade point average (GPA) for each state.

Grades are given for each of thirty indicators that make up the three major categories.

• Three quarters of the Student Achievement grade is based on the percent of poor and minority students scoring at the Proficient and Above level on NAEP while the other quarter was based on the graduation rates of minority students and the percent taking and passing at least one Advanced Placement exam
• The Achievement Trends grade is based on changes in NAEP scores over the past 15 years for poor and minority students
• The Education Reform grade is based on each state's:

  • Curricular content which includes the strength of their state standards
  • Standards-based reforms which includes how rigorous the state's definition of proficient is and whether their standards are aligned to college readiness
  • School choice laws on whether a state allows vouchers and/or charter schools

The student acheivement and achievement trends indicators can be helpful in evaluating how effective your state has been in educating their poor and minority students compared to other students. The education reform indicator enables state comparisons of educational opportunity as defined by Fordham experts and includes grades for school choice policies. 

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a non-profit education organization that focuses on achievement gaps and promotes expansion of choice and voucher programs.

www.edexcellence.net

March 2006

n/a

English, math, science, U.S. history, and world history

Reviews the rigor of states' standards to determine if they provide a suitable body of knowledge and skill and at what level.

States are given letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F) in each of the five subjects. The grades are then averaged to create a cumulative grade point average (GPA) for each state.

Expert panels of teachers and university professors rate each state's standards for each subject on a zero to four scale on a variety of criteria such as:

• Whether the topics covered are sufficient
• The depth of content knowledge students are expected to obtain
• Whether the standards are relevant and measurable
• The clarity and specificity of the standards 

Like AFT's Smart Testing, Fordham's report card is an indicator for whether a state's standards are clear and specific. Fordham further examines whether state standards contain the skills and knowledge students need to acquire at their specific grade level, as determined by Fordham's experts.