Earlier this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a report examining “educational effectiveness” in the 50 states and District of Columbia. The report, “Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness,” relied on analyses from experts at the Center for American Progress and American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, two organizations that seldom see eye to eye on matters of policy.
The report aims to approach education policy and performance from the perspective of business metrics, such as innovation, flexibility, management, and fiscal prudence. One of the main focuses of the report is on the return on educational investment. The report finds that Utah, North Carolina, and Washington, respectively have the top return on investment.
Only 21 states have definitions of workforce readiness.
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Copyright 2007 Education Week (//www.edweek.org)
The chamber’s report follows in the footsteps of other 50-state evaluations of education policy and outcomes, including Education Week’s Quality Counts, which is in its 11th year of publication. The most recent edition of Quality Counts examined transition and alignment throughout the cycle of K-12 education, including workforce and postsecondary readiness. A section on postsecondary and workforce readiness can also be found in the chamber’s report, which includes analysis of AP scores for students across the country as well as the graduation rate as calculated by EPE Research Director Christopher B. Swanson.
2007 analyses by the EPE Research Center found that only 21 states have definitions of workforce readiness, and only 11 have definitions of college readiness.
For more information on state readiness policies, and hundreds of other policies drawn from more than a decade of research, visit our Education Counts database.
