StudentsFirst released their first state report card today, grading state policies against three policy areas the organization believes are critical to refocusing the education system on students:
Elevate the teaching profession
Empower parents with choice and information
Spend wisely and govern well
The states with the top ten scores in the overall ranking system are: Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, Rhode Island, Michigan, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, and Ohio. However, no states received an overall grade higher than a B-. The section on empowering parents has several charter school indicators, including many elements of NAPCS’ model charter school law. The top ten states are: Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Florida, Hawaii, District of Columbia, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Missouri. In this category the highest score was a C+. Clearly there is a lot of room for improvement if states are going to implement policies that meet the objectives of StudentsFirst. In NAPCS’ 2012 state-by-state ranking against the charter school model law, Maine had the highest score – with 158 out of 208 points available. NAPCS will be releasing an updated version of the law soon with new analysis about states’ effectiveness in implementing their laws. For an online database of the StudentsFirst report card, click here.
