No. 129 2010 State School Report Card

Published October 1, 2010

A Nation at Risk pointed out more than 25 years ago that the poor quality of public schools in the United States is a threat to the continuing prosperity of the country. Despite substantially increased spending and many reforms, the failure of today’s school system to provide a quality education for all students poses an even greater threat to the nation.

State governments bear the major responsibility for public schools, which should make a 50-state ranking of school performance of keen interest to legislators, citizens, educators, and parents.

This report presents such a ranking based on four indices of school performance:

1. learning;
2. efficiency;
3. standards;
4. overall performance.

This report brings the information together and uses it to grade the states according to learning progress, progress in relation to spending, and state standards.

Click below to read the full text of the 2010 state-by-state analysis of public education.