The 22nd annual edition of Quality Counts continues Education Week’s long-standing tradition of grading the states on their performance. A state’s overall grade is the average of its scores on the three separate indices tracked by the report.
State Overview
This year, Iowa finishes 19th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with an overall score of 76.3 out of 100 points and a grade of C. The nation as a whole posts a grade of C.
Diving into the findings for the three graded indices, Iowa earns a B in the Chance-for-Success category and ranks ninth. The average state earns a C-plus. In School Finance, Iowa receives a C and ranks 22nd. For the K-12 Achievement Index, it finishes 32nd with a grade of C-minus. The average state earns grades of C in School Finance and K-12 Achievement. More details on results in these categories are reported below.
Chance for Success
The Education Week Research Center developed the Chance-for-Success Index to better understand the role that education plays in promoting positive outcomes across an individual’s lifetime. Based on an original state-by-state analysis, this index combines information from 13 indicators that span a person’s life from cradle to career. Those indicators fall into three sub-sections: early foundations, school years, and adult outcomes.
For early foundations, which examines factors that help children get off to a good start, Iowa earns a grade of A-minus and ranks fifth. The average state posts a B-minus.
Iowa receives a B-minus for the school years, a sub-category focusing on metrics related to pre-K enrollment through postsecondary participation. It finishes eighth in the nation in this area. By comparison, the nation as a whole earns a C-plus.
In the area of adult outcomes, based on postsecondary educational attainment and workforce indicators, Iowa’s grade is a B-minus. It ranks 15th in the nation. The national average is a C-plus.
School Finance
The school finance analysis examines two critical aspects of school spending. Of the eight indicators in this category, four assess school spending patterns, while the remaining metrics gauge equity in the distribution of funding across the districts within each state.
Across the spending indicators, Iowa finishes with an F compared with a national average of D-minus. Iowa ranks 28th in the nation in this area.
On the equity measures, Iowa receives an A-minus, which places it sixth in the national rankings. The nation as a whole earns a B.
K-12 Achievement
The K-12 Achievement Index examines 18 distinct achievement measures related to reading and math performance, high school graduation rates, and the results of Advanced Placement exams. The index assigns equal weight to current levels of performance and changes over time. It also places an emphasis on equity, by examining both poverty-based achievement gaps and progress in closing those gaps.
Indicators in the index can be broken down into three sub-categories: status, change, and equity.
Measures in the status sub-category evaluate a state’s current performance. Iowa receives a C-minus in this area and ranks 22nd in the nation. The average state earns a D-plus.
The change sub-category examines a state’s improvement over time. In this area, Iowa posts a D-minus and ranks 41st. The national average is a C-minus.
In the equity sub-section, states are graded based on achievement gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers. Iowa’s grade on those poverty-gap measures stands at a B. Nationally, it ranks 32nd in this area. The nation as a whole receives a B.
