ATLANTA — Southern Regional Education Board states make up five of the 10 highest-rated states in Education Week’s Quality Counts 2008 report released today — a sign of remarkable progress among states once considered the nation’s biggest economic problem.
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas and South Carolina made the top 10 in "overall state grades," according to the annual report on state efforts to improve education. Maryland had the nation’s third-highest overall grade, Virginia was fifth, West Virginia sixth, Arkansas eighth and South Carolina ninth. Georgia was 11th, Florida 14th, and Tennessee and Delaware tied for 16th. Eleven of the 16 SREB states beat the national average grade.
Even with the high ratings, a closer examination of the report shows that many SREB states need to improve the quality of education for all students.
"The results of Quality Counts 2008 are extremely encouraging for the entire region. State leaders’ work to improve education and their focus on education policy are paying off," SREB President Dave Spence said. "We still have much work to do, as our region strives to lead the nation in educational progress."
The "overall state grade," a new indicator developed by Education Week, is based on state ratings in six categories: students’ chance for success; K-12 achievement; standards, assessment and accountability; transitions and alignment; the teaching profession; and school finance.
SREB states generally were graded high on their education policy-making. Many were among the first in the nation to create statewide academic standards, tests to measure how well students met the standards, and accountability laws to push schools to raise achievement. Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and Louisiana all received an overall grade of A. In fact, half of the 16 SREB states received an A-minus or higher, and all SREB states earned an overall grade of B or higher.
While many SREB states were rated among the nation’s highest for gains in student achievement, overall achievement in much of the region continues to lag behind the nation as a whole.
Two SREB states rated in the nation’s top 10 on the report’s Chance-for-Success Index, indicating children’s chances for achieving academic success: Maryland at sixth and Virginia at eighth. The index is based on 13 indicators, ranging from family income to statewide high school graduation rates.
On the Chance-for-Success Index, which is one component of the state’s overall grade in the report, almost half of SREB states moved up from their 2007 rating: Delaware from 18th to 13th, North Carolina from 35th to 26th, Florida from 31st to 27th, Georgia 38th to 31st, Kentucky from tied for 41st to 33rd, South Carolina from tied for 41st to 34th, and Texas from 48th to 36th. Still, seven SREB states rated among the nation’s lowest 10 on this index: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Two SREB states led the nation on two other measures in the report. Maryland ranked in the top two states in the nation on the K-12 Achievement Index, which gauges student learning in elementary through high school. South Carolina was the nation’s leader in state efforts to improve teaching, according to the report.
In addition, several SREB states rated highest in the nation on individual indicators. Among the highlights:
Alabama had the nation’s largest gain — 9.3 percentage points from 2003 to 2007 — in the fourth-grade reading scale score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as "the nation’s report card."
Maryland had the largest gain for eighth-graders with 3.6 points. Maryland also was highest in the nation in the percentage of students scoring 3 or higher on Advanced Placement exams (34.5 percent).
Tennessee rated highest in improving its high school graduation rate from 2000 to 2004, up 14.7 percentage points, according to the report.
Virginia was rated highest in narrowing the gap in fourth-grade NAEP reading achievement between students from families in poverty and their peers from more affluent families from 2003 to 2007. Georgia ranked highest in narrowing this achievement gap for of students in eighth-grade math over the period.
West Virginia rated highest overall in school finance, leading the nation in four components of that index.
For more information about your state’s educational progress, visit www.sreb.org. SREB officials are available for interviews on Quality Counts 2008.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
