Data: Dishonor Roll

DATA

A recent report card on U.S. public schools issued by Education Week and the Pew Charitable Trusts displays the sorts of grades kids try to hide from parents. Overall, public schools earned a B for standards and assessments, a C for quality of teaching, and a C- for school "climate" (organization and operation). The report breaks down marks for resources (i.e., money, infrastructure, and equipment) into three subcategories: adequacy (C+), equity (B-), and allocation (C-).

The authors lament that little of the past 10 years' increase in educational spending has found its way into the classrooms: "Most…increased funding has been spent on the approximately 12 percent of students in special education, on trying to keep up with enrollment growth, and on rising salaries for an aging teaching force."

The table below shows two measures used to grade American schools: state-by-state results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams in 4th-grade reading proficiency and 8th-grade math proficiency. Numbers represent the percentage of students who score at the "proficient" level or above.