A fourth state, North Carolina, sustained investments over two eras of reform in the 1980s and the 1990s that enabled it to become the first high-poverty Southern state to achieve above national norms and to make more progress in closing the achievement gap during the 1990s than any other state.Īll of these states made investments that share a number of features: along with equitably funded schools they invested in early childhood education well-prepared and well-supported teachers standards, curriculum and assessments focused on 21st-century learning goals and schools organized productively for student and teacher learning. As a “majority-minority” state, New Jersey’s position as one of the top-achieving states in the country is particularly noteworthy. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics, and they perform at levels comparable to the highest-achieving nations in the world on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). These three states are routinely among the four highest-scoring on the U.S. New Jersey made great strides a decade later. Their advantages carried on in later life too: household income for these students as adults increased by 52%, and the gap in adult poverty rates between them and their more affluent peers was eliminated.Ī recent report from the Learning Policy Institute describes how four states that undertook such reforms produced much stronger educational outcomes: Connecticut and Massachusetts undertook reforms that produced great strides in equity, adequacy, and achievement during the early 1990s. And of these 12 states, only five - Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Wyoming - also funded education at a level of adequacy that enables students to receive the resources they need.Ī growing body of research finds that states that have achieved both equity and adequacy see stronger achievement and graduation rates, which translate into societal savings in lower rates of crime, incarceration and welfare and higher rates of employment, wages and taxes.Ī national study of school finance reforms found that children from low-income families in states that spent 20% more on them over the 12 years of school experienced graduation rates 23 percentage points higher than similar children without this benefit. These challenges require schools to provide a range of services to enable these children to focus on learning.ĭespite these well-known needs, in 2015, the most recent year for which national data are available, only 12 states allocated more funds to districts in which student poverty is high than to districts in which there is little or no poverty.

Furthermore, the high child poverty rate in the United States - one in four children live in poverty - means that many children live with food and housing insecurity, lack healthcare, and experience other adverse conditions.

Feudalism chart united states gov