TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A new study released Monday ranks Florida second in the nation for education test-score improvement.
The study, conducted by Education Next, looked at international and U.S. state trends in student achievement using National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics, reading, and science data from 1992 to 2011. Results show Florida gained 3.2 percent of a standard deviation annually. That's well over a full year's worth of additional learning during the time period.
Florida is second only to Maryland in test-score improvement between 1992 and 2011. The top ten most-improving states in rank order are Maryland, Florida, Delaware, Massachusetts, Louisiana, South Carolina, New Jersey, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Virginia.
"Florida is a national leader in education and the results of this study clearly show the incredible accomplishments of our learners," said Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson. "I applaud the diligent work of our students and teachers, and I am confident that our state is on the right path to providing world-class education to our students."
The United States as a whole ranks 25th out of 49 countries in student test-score improvement over a 14-year period. "If, however, the entire country performed at the level of Florida," the study's conductor Eric Hanushek says, "the U.S. would have ranked considerably higher among the participating countries." Additionally, Southern states that began to adopt education reform measures in the 1990s outpaced Midwestern states, where school reform made little headway until very recently. Five of the top 10 states were in the South and no Southern states were in the bottom 18.
Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school reform.
