How States Rate on K-12 Education
When are we going to get the message here?
You’ve undoubtedly heard about certain States being ranked such and such, compared to each other on different issues, but are you aware of the ranking source and what it means?
A commonly referenced source is the Annie E. Casey Foundation, not exactly a household name. Their State K-12 education research falls under their Kids Count program. The current State rankings are found in the 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book: State Trends in Child Well Being.
This report provided interesting statistics covering multiple issues pertaining to US children, ranging from health to education, so it is well worth perusing.
They publish a State-to-State comparison on such matters as Overall Well-Being (page 15), Economic Well-Being (page 19), Health (page 23), as well as Family and Community (page 25). Each topic has a page or so of discussion.
Note that the Report also includes an online interactive part where interested readers can explore more details on a state-by-state level.
For our purposes, we are interested in the K-12 Education section. Not surprisingly, the overall US data is beyond deplorable. As of 2024, 70% of US fourth Graders do NOT Read at minimum grade level requirements. 73% of US eight Graders do NOT understand Math at minimum grade level requirements. Here are the State-by-State ratings (page 21)…
There is no good news here for anyone, as the best States are still producing third-world country results (60%+ failure rates!), while the worst States are criminally bad (80%+ failure rates).
Being the top state of this deplorable collection reminds me of George Will’s witty answer on a different topic. He said it would be like being the tallest building in Topeka. Exactly.
What this CLEARLY says is that the DOEd plan to turn over more authority and money to the States is a disastrously bad idea, as not a single State is even remotely close to being competent! Read this for the best solution.
Another message screaming out here is that Critical Thinking must be formally taught in K-12, starting yesterday. (At this point, zero States formally teach Critical Thinking.) For the first time ever, we now have a powerful tool for States to do this: K-12 Critical Thinking Standards.
If you genuinely appreciate the seriousness of this crisis, and are willing to dedicate some time and effort to fix this, contact me for info.
PS — Here is other worthwhile national rating info on each State.
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Thomas Jefferson read thousands of books on political systems and Scottish modes of education in order to write the constitution. His teachers were beyond brilliant. To teach critical thinking one would first have to teach teachers to understand and be able to do it themselves. To talk about teaching, one would first have to talk about Help. Is it possible? Is it all failed help? For a base format in which to evolve teaching critical thinking, one has to go outside the current educational system. To begin, how to study is never taught. L Ron Hubbard's Study Technology is the first true information I received on the subject of study. Applied Scholastics.org is a group dedicated to teaching educators and concerned parents the fundamentals of how to study and how to teach others teach and coupled with your technology on Critical thinking, it may yet be able to be assimilated into learning for all.
John, The Annie E Casey foundation is the money from the heirs to the UPS fortune for those who are interested...it is a major, albeit, quiet player in the not-for-profit world.