K-12 Education

The American educational system has focused on better tracking of achievement during the past 15 years, with the ultimate goal of holding accountable those school systems that lag behind their counterparts. At the same time, policy makers have wanted to spotlight the best practices of those districts where students perform better than expectations.

Since 1994, Pew has supported Quality Counts, an annual report card grading all 50 states on K-12 educational standards and accountability as well as on efforts to improve teacher quality, school climate and resource equity.

Quality Counts 2007 and Quality Counts 2008 continued this research, with a new feature: the “Chance-for-Success Index,” which tracks state efforts to connect education from prekindergarten through postsecondary education and training. The 13 indicators that make up this index capture key performance or attainment outcomes at various stages in a person’s lifetime or are correlated with later success.

To help provide a picture of K-12 performance across states, Quality Counts also includes a “State Achievement Index” that ranks each state based on its students whose achievement are significantly above or below the national average and on its students who are making progress on 15 indicators. Quality Counts is produced by Editorial Projects in Education, a nonprofit news organization, and published in Education Week magazine. Education Week offers limited free access to Quality Counts; unlimited access is available with a print or online subscription.