Arizona Education System Near Bottom Compared to all States

PHOENIX (From Wire Services) January 19, 2010 —

Arizona slips to No. 46 in nationwide report for the overall quality of its K-12 education system based on national comparisons of factors such as school spending, academic standards and teacher training, according to the annual "Quality Counts" report card released this month.

Arizona was short of the national average, a C, and dropped from 43rd to 46th place among all 50 states in the national report by Editorial Projects in Education, the non-profit group that publishes "Education Week."

Arizona now trails Montana in the overall national rankings but leads Mississippi, South Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada and the District of Columbia, which in last place received a D+. The star student was Massachusetts, which received a B. Arizona's drop occurred largely because other states' ratings improved, the data show.

Researchers graded the 50 states and the District of Columbia on various factors within these six categories: student "chance for success" from cradle to career; the quality of education policies, achievement and standards from preschool to university; school funding; student achievement; grade-level learning goals, tests and accountability; and efforts to improve teaching.

The good news is for the second year in a row, Arizona earned an A- for the quality of its learning goals, tests and accountability. It is 18th in the nation with that grade, although last year it was eighth.

The bad news is the state lags in all other categories. In the "chance for success category," Arizona sank from 42nd in the nation to 45th, although its grade was the same, C-.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne called the study "perverse" because of the factors it weighs in gauging student success from early childhood to college or the workplace.

Researchers grade the chance for success on issues such as the state's average household income and parents' fluency in English - both of which are issues at home, he noted. Studies have shown those issues affect a student's performance.

"We have a much higher poverty level than most states," Horne said. "But our kids perform better than the national average on the Terra Nova test.

"It should be a credit to our education system that they are getting as high scores as they are," he said.

Many states use the Terra Nova test by CTB McGraw Hill to track students' skills in math, writing and reading.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress by the U.S. Department of Education serves a similar purpose. About 3,500 students nationwide take the national assessment, but far more - 600,000 students - take the Terra Nova exam, Horne said.

A senior researcher on the report, Sterling Lloyd, said "Quality Counts" tries to gauge a child's chance for success by looking at all factors that may influence performance from preschool on.

"While it's true some indicators, such as the association of the education system and the economy, are not directly controlled by the state education system, . . . you could argue states should align the system to address those issues," he said.

In a related category, Arizona received a C- for policies on early-childhood education, college education and preparedness, worker readiness and education.

Researchers reported Arizona has yet to define what constitutes school readiness for young children and college readiness for teens.

Researchers also said the state should offer a career-tech diploma for graduating high-school students who complete technical programs.

Arizona saw some improvement in one closely watched area: per-student spending. The state spends about $8,000 per student on education according to the researchers' formula. The national average is almost $10,600 per student.

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