Education policy helped these states beat the socioeconomic curve
Rapidly improving economic conditions among the country’s poorest families during the 1990s may have been responsible for much of the progress in student achievement we saw in the 2000s. It’s a provocative and compelling national picture. But what about at the state level? Were those where child poverty declined the most the same states where the “below basic” rate dropped the most? In a word, no. There’s a clear reformy slant to the list of high-fliers from that era, and from more recent history, too.