Mississippi has the best schools in the nation, writes Chad Aldeman. Massachusetts has the highest-scoring schools.
He used an Urban Institute analysis that controlled for student demographics, including "gender, age, race or ethnicity, receipt of free and reduced-price lunch, special education status, and English language learner status." Then he looked at eighth-grade math.
Mississippi, New Mexico and Louisiana outperform expectations based on the challenges their students face. Texas, Georgia and Florida come next. Massachusetts, a relatively wealthy, educated and white state, drops to 26th. Wyoming ranks sixth in overall scores, but last when demographics are factored in.
Overall, Southern and Western states tend to do well on this metric, writes Aldeman, while states in the Northeast and Midwest "look particularly bad."
Comparing Texas to Wisconsin is instructive, he writes. "Wisconsin spends a lot more money on education, its schools have lower staffing ratios, and its teachers have more training," he writes. Wisconsin ranks fifth in eighth-grade math scores, while Texas comes in at 25th. Furthermore, white students in Wisconsin do better than whites in Texas.
However, "Texas has a slight edge for Hispanic students and a huge advantage for black students," Aldeman notes. Wisconsin has the largest black-white achievement gap of any state: "Texas scores #1 in the nation for Black students while Wisconsin comes in last."
New Jersey is overrated in education rankings, argues Tim Daly. Advantaged students do well there, but less-advantaged students have "mediocre" scores. Who's underrated? Again, he picks Texas.
Mark Porter Magee warns that this kind of analysis has the effect of "normalizing lower expectations for states with high percentages of black and Hispanic students."