How Education Week Graded the States

Student Achievement | Standards and Accountability

Efforts to Improve Teacher Quality | School Climate | Resources

For Quality Counts 2005 , the Education Week Research Center compiled data on more than 100 indicators across five categories. We collected much of the data through an annual policy survey conducted during the summer and fall of 2004. Each state’s responses were carefully verified with documentation, such as a state statute or other evidence provided by the state. We did not grant credit to states unable to document that the policies we track are in place.

In the state-by-state tables, ungraded columns are beige and are provided for additional information. We did not grade states in the student-achievement category because the presentation of the data is sufficient to gauge state performance. To arrive at a grade for the other four categories, we assigned points to each column of data or information. For columns that contain information on state policies, we assigned letter grades based on whether the state had adopted such policies, and then granted points according to the following scale: An A was worth 100 points; a B, 85 points; a C, 75 points; a D, 65 points; and an F, 50 points. For columns that contain numerical data, such as percentages, we assigned points based on...