Percentage of students proficient in mathematics, PISA and NAEP equated.
We know Virginia students score better than average nationally in educational achievement, and we know that United States students garner mediocre scores by international measures. What we really need to know, in a globally competitive knowledge economy, is how well Virginia students rank in international comparisons.
According to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 18th-edition “Report Card on American Education,” Virginia falls between Austria and Slovakia in educational achievement. I suppose it could be worse. West Virginia students exhibit levels of achievement comparable to Turkey, Mississippi to Uruguay. But, then, the best schools — Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Kansas, South Dakota — are comparable to top European countries, although they lag the top Asian countries. Obviously, we could do better.
View the report to see Virginia’s report card. ALEC, a conservative think tank, gives Virginia education policy a C-, with a spectacular F for its policies regarding charter schools. Virginia’s state performance ranking, which measures overall 2011 scores for low-income students and their gains and losses on the NAEP test, is a middle-of-the-road 26.
— JAB
