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Quorum Report Daily Buzz

September 11, 2014      6:21 PM

Texas schools losing ground to other states in business report on education

“If we’re not getting kids through the system, we probably need to ask about the value” of democratizing Advanced Placement

Texas schools continue to lose ground to other states in the biannual US Chamber of Commerce’s Leaders & Laggards report, dropping from the middle of the pack to a grade of “D” when compared to other states’ progress.

The Leaders & Laggards report, just like Education Week’s Quality Counts, varies the outcomes it measures in its reports, making multi-year comparisons difficult. And the report also reflects the chamber’s own policy preferences: broader options for school choice; policies that support high-demand careers; tougher teacher evaluations; and access to technology that provides instructional options.

“We use a bell curve for a real simple reason,” AEI researcher Rick Hess said of the results. “We’re not sure anybody knows what the right number of kids passing the NAEP should be. We could say every state should be passing AP tests at 100 percent, and then every state would have an ‘F.’ That doesn’t seem to bring a lot of effort to the conversation, so we compared each state to other states in the union.”

By Kimberly Reeves