“The early years of a child’s life lay the foundation for lifelong success… Yet our country continues to have significant gaps in educational achievement by race and income among all age groups of child development.”
That’s according to a new report released Wednesday by the private philanthropy The Annie E. Casey Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping families and communities build brighter futures for children.
The “2023 Kids Count Data Book” report outlines the latest trends impacting children’s overall well-being from childcare affordability to their economic circumstances, including education. The researchers analyzed education-related data from several sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Education Statistics and other national assessment statistics. As the data suggests, the education landscape as a whole looks rather grim.
To better understand the scope and overall health of American education, the researchers used four indicators for their measurements: young children (ages 3 and 4) not in school, 4th-graders not proficient in reading, 8th-graders not proficient in math and high school students not graduating on time. The same indicators were used to paint a picture of the quality of education in each state to develop a ranking system.
According to the national data, levels worsened in all but one of the indicators:
- Young children (ages 3 and 4) not in school: 54% from 2017-2021 (compared to 53% in 2012-16).
- 4th-graders not proficient in reading: 68% in 2022 (compared to 66% in 2019).
- 8th-graders not proficient in math: 74% in 2022 (compared to 67% in 2019).
- High school students not graduating on time: 14% from 2019-2020 (compared to 14% from 2018-2019).
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Now, let’s take a look at the state-by-state rankings. For brevity, we’ll only highlight the five highest—and lowest—performing states for education based on these four areas of measurement.
Top five
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- New Hampshire
- Florida
Bottom five ordered from highest to lowest
- Nevada (ranked #46)
- West Virginia (ranked #47)
- Alaska (ranked #48)
- Oklahoma (ranked #49)
- New Mexico (ranked #50)