Governor Glenn Youngkin is under fire again from Virginia’s education establishment, this time because a new school accountability system his administration is promoting refuses to put lipstick on a pig. More specifically, by measuring the effectiveness of the commonwealth’s schools according to whether students are meeting academic standards and learning enough from year to year, some preliminary forecasts estimate that the system is likely to find that 70% of campuses “need intensive support” or are “off track.” (The other, higher categories are “on track” and “distinguished.”)
This is not sitting well with the powers that be who run Virginia’s local school divisions. Scott Brabrand, executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS), recently told the State Board of Education that he and his members don’t believe “the majority of our schools are in those two (lowest) categories.”
Which brings to mind the Richard Pryor line: “Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” Is Brabrand right? Are Virginia officials being unfairly harsh?
Let’s consider, first and foremost, how many students in Virginia are “off track.” If most students are doing well, it would raise questions about labeling so many of their schools as “off track.”
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, or “The Nation’s Report Card”), 31 percent of Virginia’s students scored at or above the “proficient” level in reading in 2022 (the most recently available data). The NAEP’s definition of “proficient” in reading is equivalent to “on track for college and career.” So we can confidently say that the majority of today’s high school juniors—the teens who took the eighth grade NAEP in 2022—are “off track.” In fact, 69 percent of them are “off track,” very close to the 70 percent of schools that may soon be classified as the same.
Or let’s look at math, the subject most affected by the long school closures of the Covid-19 era. According to NAEP, Virginia’s eighth graders’ average scores dropped 8 points from 2019 to 2022. By some estimates, that drop equates to approximately 80 percent of a school year. The result is that just 31 percent of students in the state (that number again!) are now proficient in math.
So yes, Virginia’s students are off track. And so are its schools.
Now let’s be clear: Virginia is no outlier. The pandemic was a disaster for students all over the country. But that doesn’t mean we should normalize what happened to our children. They suffered immensely from being out of school for so long, and while many of the scars from the pandemic have healed, we still have years of work ahead of us to do right by our kids.
Yet too many parents aren’t hearing that message, because schools and public officials are too eager to argue that everything’s OK. It reminds me of the parade scene in Animal House, with chaos coming from all sides, and Kevin Bacon’s character shouting, “Remain calm, remain calm, all is well!”
All is not well. Covid is not in the rearview mirror, at least as far as our children are concerned. Students suffered massive learning loss, and they are still moving backward in terms of student achievement. (One recent study found that kids made less progress last school year than their counterparts in 2019 did).
In the face of these realities, Virginia’s state superintendents believe that we shouldn’t worry because Virginia is ranked number one in the country for business, so how could its education system possibly be bad? That’s a dubious assertion for a rating that only counted education as 5 percent of the total—and is certainly at odds with The Nation’s Report Card. But it’s also beside the point. It’s like winning a race to jump off a sinking ship. You’re still going to find yourself floundering in the water.
Grade inflation is already a massive problem in our schools; kids are bringing home As and Bs on their report cards, even if they are one or two grade levels behind in reading and math. No doubt this is why so few parents in Virginia and elsewhere are aware of the post-Covid emergency in student achievement.
Let’s not make the problem worse by extending grade inflation to our school ratings. Let’s follow Governor Youngkin’s lead and tell parents the truth. Our kids are off track. Our schools are off track. Let’s stop saying otherwise and start figuring out how to fix it.
Editor’s note: This was first published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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Because public school enrollment hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels—and because underlying enrollment trends are negative—it’s likely that some public schools will need to be closed in the near future.
But which schools should be considered candidates for closure?
In this report, the Brookings Institution's Sofoklis Goulas uses data from multiple sources to identify nearly 500 public schools that are underenrolled, and, according to their states, chronically low-achieving—that is, schools that warrant discussion of closure when that inevitable conversation occurs.
Download Underachieving and Underenrolled: Chronically Low-Performing Schools in the Post-Pandemic Era or read the full report below.
By Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli
“Demography is destiny” is a cliché, but that doesn’t make it untrue. In a world filled with uncertainty, one thing that America’s schools can bank on is fewer students to go around. As a Bellwether analysis released earlier this month explained, birth rates are down 14 percent over the past decade, and that already means shrinking enrollment in America’s elementary schools, with declines coming soon in secondary education, too.[1]
Yes, the COVID-era shift to homeschools and other options is a factor, but that’s dwarfed by America’s baby bust, which has been particularly dramatic in many of our big cities. For instance, Philadelphia, Albuquerque and Los Angeles have had roughly a quarter of schools show declines of 20 percent or more between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 years.[2]
Traditionally, when confronted with difficult challenges such as these, district leaders have dragged their feet. There’s an obvious course of action, but like the rest of us, they know that closing schools is unpopular and divisive. Yet, in some communities, the status quo has become increasingly untenable—costly, inefficient, and educationally ineffective.
In Chicago, where 35 percent of seats are now unfilled, nearly three in five school buildings are underutilized.[3]
In Milwaukee, at least forty schools are “significantly underenrolled” (though that hasn’t stopped the district from requesting a 30 percent increase in property taxes).[4]
In Broward, sixty-seven schools are now operating at less than 70 percent capacity.[5]
The same can be said for forty-eight schools in Fort Worth.[6]
And so on and so forth.
Ample research makes clear that forcing students to switch schools can be traumatic and even harmful, especially if they end up attending lower-performing campuses. Yet closing a school is beneficial when displaced students land in better alternatives.[7] And of course, the primary purpose of most closures isn’t just to help this generation of students. It’s to ensure that innumerable future generations are well-served.
That’s because keeping underenrolled schools on life support is expensive in both dollar and educational terms. For example, Chicago Public Schools now spends nearly $70,000 on each student who attends Douglass High School, which is currently operating at an astonishing 4 percent of its intended capacity.[8] Districts operate on a fixed pool of funds, so maintaining underenrolled buildings drains dollars from all of a district’s schools, not just those with low student counts.
Ultimately, waiting to close a school doesn’t make pulling the Band-Aid off any less painful. It just means more wasted resources, less to go around, and more kids in desolate schools.
In the face of enrollment declines that won’t reverse for decades—if ever—common sense suggests that schools that are both underenrolled and underperforming should be the first to close.[9]
We wondered how many such schools might exist. And we suspected that local policymakers and district officials could use a bit of cover to jumpstart these tough conversations. So, to that end, we partnered with Brookings Institution Fellow Sofoklis Goulas (whose prior work on enrollment decline is well-known) to identify public schools that were both underperforming and increasingly underenrolled. A sobering analysis conducted last fall by Goulas found that, in the wake of the pandemic, about 12 percent of elementary schools and 9 percent of middle schools had lost at least one-fifth of their enrollment.[10]
To identify low-performing schools, Dr. Goulas relied on the states’ own judgments, using Comprehensive Support and Improvement designations (CSI), a provision in federal law requiring states to identify:
As you’ll see in the report, states differ vastly in how they interpret these requirements, so it doesn’t make sense to make cross-state comparisons. It also suggests caution in interpreting the quality of these schools, as we discuss further below.
To identify schools where enrollment had declined, Dr. Goulas looked at enrollment changes between 2019–20 and 2022–23, building on his previous work. For the purposes of this study, a decline of 20 percent or greater is considered “substantial.”
So, what did the analysis reveal?
1. Nearly one in twelve public schools in the United States—or roughly 5,100 schools—has experienced a “substantial” enrollment decline in the wake of COVID-19 (i.e., between 2019 and 2023).
2. Schools that were identified by their states as chronically low performing were more than twice as likely to experience sizable enrollment declines as other public schools.
3. Nationally, close to 500 schools that states have identified as chronically low performing have experienced a substantial enrollment decline in the wake of the pandemic.
Readers can find in the appendix a list identifying the 500 chronically underperforming schools where enrollment has declined substantially. But keep in mind a couple of caveats.
First, Table A-1 isn’t a “bad schools list.” Frankly, we’re not fans of how some states designate their CSI schools, relying heavily on proficiency rates rather than year-over-year student-level growth. There might be some schools on the list with very low test scores but strong year-to-year growth. We would consider those good schools, not bad schools.
Second, we don’t know whether students in these communities have high-quality alternatives. Nor do we have any real insight into the condition of their facilities or the myriad logistical questions that would necessarily inform a decision regarding closure.
For these reasons and more, these 500 schools may or may not be strong candidates for closure (though in some cases, closure is likely to be the best course of action).
So, if you are a parent, involved citizen/taxpayer, or local reporter looking into how closure decisions are (or aren’t) getting made, here's what we suggest that you do. Use the list to raise the following questions with district and state leaders:
1. When the time comes, what criteria will policymakers use to decide which schools will be closed?
2.What criteria does our state use to identify elementary and high schools for CSI? Does it include a measure of growth, in addition to proficiency? Do the criteria for high schools include anything other than graduation rates?
3. How does our state or district determine which schools are “underenrolled”?
4. What educational options exist for the students who currently attend these schools?
These are painful, politically fraught decisions, and we understand why district officials and local leaders often kick the school-closure can down the road for as long as they can. But many of them will eventually be forced to decide the fate of their near-empty buildings. What should inform that decision? To us, it’s clear: The foremost consideration is—within the resources available to us—what’s best for educating the students of this community?
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the education sector, and its ramifications have extended far beyond the extended closure of many American schools. Among other things, they include a substantial enrollment decline in a non-trivial number of public schools across the United States, some of which were already experiencing declining enrollment due to internal migration and declining birth rates.
Previous analyses have shown that neither population change nor increases in charter or private school enrollment fully explain the enrollment losses experienced by traditional public schools during the pandemic, suggesting that many families have chosen to educate their children at home.[12] This analysis takes a closer look at enrollment trends in a subset of schools that may be particularly affected by these and other trends—namely, schools that states identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
These “CSI” schools require comprehensive support and improvement because they are chronically low-performing, have very low graduation rates, or have one or more chronically underperforming subgroups.[13] Typically, CSI schools receive additional resources, support, and interventions to help them improve student outcomes and overall school performance. However, the recent decline in enrollment raises new questions, such as whether some of these schools, which have faced ongoing challenges, are destined to be closed or consolidated.
Accordingly, the research questions are as follows:
1. How many of America’s public schools experienced a substantial enrollment decline (e.g., >20 percent) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic?
2. Were schools that were already identified as chronically low-performing more likely to experience a substantial enrollment decline than other public schools?
The analysis that is the basis for this report is descriptive as opposed to causal. Regardless of the root causes, under-enrolled schools create challenges for school districts, chronically low-performing schools create challenges for students, and schools that are both under-enrolled and chronically low-performing are in need of policymakers’ attention.
For years, federal policymakers have aimed to identify and improve underperforming schools by implementing accountability measures tied to achievement, year-to-year academic growth, and other indicators of student success. As part of those efforts, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) introduced the identification of schools requiring “Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI)” based on three criteria.[14] Specifically, states are required to identify:
Although these three criteria are mandated by ESSA, states have significant flexibility when it comes to identifying their “lowest-performing” Title I schools. For example, some states use a weighted index to calculate a numerical score to determine the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, based on a variable combination of achievement, year-to-year growth, progress towards English Language proficiency, graduation rates (in the case of high schools), and non-test-based indicators of school quality, as required under ESSA. However, many states have developed distinctive decision rules for the purpose of CSI identification, such as identifying any school receiving an “F” rating based on the ESSA-required indicators.[15] Similarly, some states identify CSI schools annually, while others identify them once every three years.
These processes have at least two implications that are relevant to the present study. First, the percentage of schools that were identified for CSI during the study period varied by state. For example, some states included schools that had not exited their ATSI program for three or more years (the third criterion above) in their lists of CSI schools. But most states had not yet identified these schools because they had more time to implement their ATSI school improvement plans before facing escalation to CSI status. Moreover, some states went above and beyond the law’s requirements. For example, until 2022, Nevada identified all schools, regardless of Title I status, that received a 1-star rating on Nevada’s performance framework for CSI.[16]
In addition to affecting the identification rate, the approach that a state takes to identifying CSI schools has important implications for what the designation captures. For example, because Arizona relies exclusively on students’ achievement at the K-8 level, its list of CSI schools may include schools where students have low test scores despite making a defensible amount of year-to-year progress.[17] In contrast, Maryland bases almost half of its K-8 designations on academic progress (35 percent) and progress toward English language proficiency for English learners (10 percent), both of which provide more direct insight into school performance.
At the high school level, states must automatically identify schools for CSI where more than a third of students fail to graduate. Like achievement, this measure is influenced by factors that are beyond the control of schools, in addition to school performance. Moreover, high school graduation requirements vary by state. And even within states and localities, individual schools’ graduation standards may vary considerably.
In short, “chronically low-performing” can mean many things. Consequently, it is unlikely that a particular intervention is appropriate for every circumstance. In contrast to previous federal frameworks, such as those established by No Child Left Behind and the School Improvement Grant program, there are no mandated interventions for chronically low-performing schools under ESSA (though identification of such schools is mandatory). Ultimately, states and districts share responsibility for deciding whether to allocate more funds to CSI schools, mandate the adoption of specific reforms, or take additional steps.[18]
The information that is the basis for this analysis comes from several sources. Data on schools’ enrollment, locale type, and charter status come from the Common Core of Data, which is compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics. Data on schools’ Comprehensive Support and Improvement status immediately prior to the pandemic (i.e., for the 2019–20 school year) come from the federal Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Finally, data on neighborhood poverty come from the U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates.
Some fluctuation in school enrollment is to be expected, so to determine whether the enrollment changes that public schools experienced in the wake of the pandemic were unusual, the analysis compares the distribution of enrollment changes for the three-year period that preceded the pandemic (i.e., 2016–17 to 2019–20) to the corresponding distribution for the three-year period that followed it (i.e., 2019–20 to 2022–23). Similarly, the use of a three-year window allows for comparison of enrollment declines in CSI and non-CSI schools post pandemic.
Although there is no clear demarcation beyond which schools may be considered under-enrolled, for the purposes of this report, an enrollment decline of more than 20 percent is considered “substantial.”
Finding 1: Nearly one in twelve public schools in the United States—or roughly 5,100 schools—has experienced a “substantial” enrollment decline in the wake of COVID-19 (i.e., between 2019 and 2023).
As Figure 1 illustrates, because the distribution of post-pandemic enrollment change (the cream bars) is to the left of the distribution of pre-pandemic change (the green bars), more schools experienced substantial enrollment declines in the wake of the pandemic than immediately before it. For example, the share of schools that lost more than 20 percent of their students over a three-year period increased from 5 percent to 8 percent.
Figure 1: Nearly one in twelve public schools has experienced a substantial enrollment decline in the wake of COVID-19.
Finding 2: Schools that were identified as chronically low-performing were more than twice as likely to experience sizable enrollment declines as other public schools.
In addition to other factors, the unusual number of schools that have experienced substantial enrollment declines since the pandemic may reflect families’ dissatisfaction with their local schools. Insofar as family satisfaction depends on school performance, one might expect schools identified as low-performing to experience larger enrollment declines after COVID-19 than other public schools. Accordingly, Figure 2 compares the distributions of post-pandemic enrollment changes for CSI and non-CSI schools across the nation.
Per the figure, the distribution of CSI schools’ post-pandemic enrollment change lies to the left of the corresponding distribution for non-CSI schools, meaning CSI schools were more likely than non-CSI schools to experience substantial enrollment declines. For example, roughly 15 percent of CSI schools experienced an enrollment decline of more than 20 percent, compared to just 7 percent of non-CSI schools.
Figure 2: Schools that were identified as chronically low-performing were more than twice as likely to experience sizable enrollment declines.
Which types of low-performing schools experienced enrollment declines?
Per Figure 3, more CSI schools (69 percent) than non-CSI schools (36 percent) are located in high-poverty areas (Panel A). Similarly, more CSI schools (47 percent) than non-CSI schools (25 percent) are in urban locales (Panel B). Finally, and more CSI schools (9 percent) than non-CSI schools (4 percent) are charter schools (Panel C).
Figure 3: Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, schools in urban locales, and charter schools are overrepresented among chronically low-performing schools.
In a similar vein, CSI schools that experienced substantial enrollment losses were more likely to be located in high-poverty neighborhoods (72 percent vs. 51 percent), more likely to be in urban areas (64 percent vs. 46 percent), and more likely to be charter schools (13 percent vs. 6 percent) than similarly affected non-CSI schools (Figure 4). Collectively, these figures suggest that enrollment declines are associated with socioeconomic factors that are also negatively associated with school performance. For example, children in high-poverty neighborhoods may bear the double disadvantage of more low-performing schools and a higher risk of non-attendance.
Figure 4: Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, schools in urban locales, and charter schools are overrepresented among chronically low-performing schools that experienced substantial enrollment declines.
Finding 3: Nationally, close to 500 chronically low-performing schools have experienced a substantial enrollment decline in the wake of the pandemic.
Nationally, close to 500 CSI schools experienced enrollment declines of more than 20 percent in the three years immediately following the pandemic (for a full list, see the Appendix). However, because of differences in student demographics, states’ approaches to identification, and enrollment trends, these schools are unevenly distributed. Accordingly, Figure 5 shows the share of schools in each state that were identified as CSI (Panel A), the share that experienced an enrollment decline of more than 20 percent between 2019–20 and 2022–23 (Panel B), and the share that satisfied both of those criteria (Panel C).
Per the figure, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, and West Virginia identified the most schools as CSI (Panel A). Similarly, Nevada and New Mexico had the most schools with substantial post-pandemic enrollment declines (Panel B). Consequently, Nevada (where both CSI identification and enrollment decline are common) has the most schools that were identified as CSI and experienced enrollment declines of more than 20 percent over this period (Panel C).
Figure 5: Nationally, close to 500 chronically low-performing schools have experienced an enrollment decline of more than 20 percent.
Per the findings, there was a notable increase in the proportion of public schools experiencing sizable enrollment declines following the pandemic. While less than 5 percent of schools experienced enrollment losses exceeding 20 percent between 2016–17 and 2019–20, this figure surged to approximately 8 percent in the period between 2019–20 and 2022–23.
Further analysis reveals that chronically low-performing schools, many of which may be grappling with systemic challenges and resource constraints, have been disproportionately affected by enrollment declines. For example, they were more than twice as likely to experience enrollment declines exceeding 20 percent.
Moreover, closer examination of affected schools reveals additional disparities, with schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, schools in urban areas, and charter schools emerging as particularly vulnerable to enrollment decline. For example, of the CSI schools that experienced enrollment declines of more than 20 percent, nearly three quarters were located in high-poverty neighborhoods.
The implications of these trends for the educational opportunities that are available to students in underserved communities are troubling. As schools contend with declining enrollment—and the imminent expiration of the billions of dollars in pandemic-related emergency funding—they may face increasingly severe budgetary constraints, staffing adjustments, and programmatic shifts, potentially compromising the already variable quality of education provided.
Tackling these challenges requires a multifaceted approach that addresses systemic inequities, allocates resources strategically, protects valuable infrastructure, and prioritizes the needs of vulnerable student populations. However, in some cases, consolidation or closure may be unavoidable.
Table A-1. Chronically Low-Performing Schools that have Experienced “Substantial” Enrollment Decline
*This table is best viewed on your browser's default settings and normal width.
| State | District | School | Enrollment in 2022-23 | Absolute Enrollment Decline (btw. 2019–20 and 2022-23) |
Percent Enrollment Decline (btw. 2019–20 and 2022-23) |
| AL | MONTGOMERY COUNTY | DUNBAR RAMER SCHOOL | 62 | -41 | -40 |
| AL | SUMTER COUNTY | SUMTER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL | 301 | -111 | -27 |
| AK | BERING STRAIT SCHOOL DISTRICT | WALES SCHOOL | 37 | -14 | -27 |
| AK | ALASKA GATEWAY SCHOOL DISTRICT | ALASKA REACH ACADEMY | 33 | -26 | -44 |
| AK | LAKE AND PENINSULA BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT | PILOT POINT SCHOOL | 8 | -8 | -50 |
| AK | SOUTHWEST REGION SCHOOL DISTRICT | TWIN HILLS SCHOOL | 19 | -13 | -41 |
| AR | EARLE SCHOOL DISTRICT | EARLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 231 | -58 | -20 |
| AR | WATSON CHAPEL SCHOOL DISTRICT | COLEMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 384 | -138 | -26 |
| CA | FORT SAGE UNIFIED | FORT SAGE MIDDLE | 14 | -9 | -39 |
| CA | FORT SAGE UNIFIED | SIERRA PRIMARY | 46 | -23 | -33 |
| CA | SANTA BARBARA UNIFIED | CLEVELAND ELEMENTARY | 243 | -73 | -23 |
| CA | ANTIOCH UNIFIED | ANTIOCH MIDDLE | 660 | -214 | -24 |
| CA | ANTIOCH UNIFIED | MARSH ELEMENTARY | 530 | -139 | -21 |
| CA | COLTON JOINT UNIFIED | RUTH O. HARRIS MIDDLE | 568 | -154 | -21 |
| CA | FRESNO UNIFIED | LOWELL ELEMENTARY | 339 | -96 | -22 |
| CA | GATEWAY UNIFIED | BUCKEYE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS | 445 | -125 | -22 |
| CA | HAYWARD UNIFIED | ANTHONY W. OCHOA MIDDLE | 407 | -131 | -24 |
| CA | HOLLISTER | RANCHO SAN JUSTO | 556 | -304 | -35 |
| CA | HOLLISTER | MAZE MIDDLE | 452 | -266 | -37 |
| CA | INGLEWOOD UNIFIED | CROZIER (GEORGE W.) MIDDLE | 306 | -148 | -33 |
| CA | KLAMATH-TRINITY JOINT UNIFIED | JACK NORTON ELEMENTARY | 13 | -13 | -50 |
| CA | LONG BEACH UNIFIED | LINDBERGH STEM ACADEMY | 408 | -167 | -29 |
| CA | LOS ANGELES UNIFIED | ARAGON AVENUE ELEMENTARY | 200 | -56 | -22 |
| CA | LOS ANGELES UNIFIED | HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT MIDDLE | 446 | -210 | -32 |
| CA | LOS ANGELES UNIFIED | CHARLES MACLAY MIDDLE | 349 | -123 | -26 |
| CA | LOS ANGELES UNIFIED | BELMONT SENIOR HIGH | 599 | -179 | -23 |
| CA | LOS ANGELES UNIFIED | PIO PICO MIDDLE | 212 | -261 | -55 |
| CA | LOS BANOS UNIFIED | LOS BANOS ELEMENTARY | 441 | -357 | -45 |
| CA | MANCHESTER UNION ELEMENTARY | MANCHESTER ELEMENTARY | 35 | -10 | -22 |
| CA | OAKLAND UNIFIED | BRET HARTE MIDDLE | 446 | -228 | -34 |
| CA | WEST CONTRA COSTA UNIFIED | BAYVIEW ELEMENTARY | 325 | -171 | -34 |
| CA | WEST CONTRA COSTA UNIFIED | HELMS MIDDLE | 591 | -260 | -31 |
| CA | SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED | CAROLINE WENZEL ELEMENTARY | 225 | -90 | -29 |
| CA | SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED | MISSION EDUCATION CENTER | 141 | -53 | -27 |
| CA | SAN JOSE UNIFIED | TERRELL ELEMENTARY | 282 | -95 | -25 |
| CA | SANTA ROSA ELEMENTARY | BROOK HILL ELEMENTARY | 303 | -90 | -23 |
| CA | SANTA ROSA ELEMENTARY | ALBERT F. BIELLA ELEMENTARY | 215 | -117 | -35 |
| CA | SEMITROPIC ELEMENTARY | SEMITROPIC ELEMENTARY | 151 | -54 | -26 |
| CA | SOUTHERN HUMBOLDT JOINT UNIFIED | CASTERLIN ELEMENTARY | 28 | -10 | -26 |
| CA | STOCKTON UNIFIED | JOHN MARSHALL ELEMENTARY | 429 | -121 | -22 |
| CA | STOCKTON UNIFIED | STOCKTON HIGH | 135 | -39 | -22 |
| CA | VALLEJO CITY UNIFIED | LINCOLN ELEMENTARY | 144 | -46 | -24 |
| CA | VICTOR ELEMENTARY | GREEN TREE EAST ELEMENTARY | 520 | -193 | -27 |
| CA | VICTOR ELEMENTARY | PUESTA DEL SOL ELEMENTARY | 651 | -171 | -21 |
| CA | WEST PARK ELEMENTARY | WEST PARK CHARTER ACADEMY | 204 | -76 | -27 |
| CA | ORANGE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | COLLEGE AND CAREER PREPARATORY ACADEMY | 156 | -89 | -36 |
| CA | MONO COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION | URBAN CORPS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY CHARTER | 183 | -120 | -40 |
| CA | GOLDEN PLAINS UNIFIED | HELM ELEMENTARY | 66 | -39 | -37 |
| CO | STATE CHARTER SCHOOL INSTITUTE | EARLY COLLEGE OF ARVADA | 208 | -127 | -38 |
| CO | SCHOOL DISTRICT N. 14 IN THE COUNTY OF ADAMS & STATE OF COLO | HANSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 257 | -138 | -35 |
| CO | COLORADO SPRINGS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 11 IN THE COUNTY OF E | MITCHELL HIGH SCHOOL | 886 | -288 | -25 |
| CO | COLORADO SPRINGS SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 11 IN THE COUNTY OF E | WEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 173 | -58 | -25 |
| CO | SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 IN THE COUNTY OF DENVER AND STATE OF C | COLE ARTS AND SCIENCE ACADEMY | 255 | -65 | -20 |
| CO | ENGLEWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 IN THE COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE | ENGLEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL | 219 | -63 | -22 |
| CO | JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. R-1 | MOLHOLM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 229 | -103 | -31 |
| CO | JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. R-1 | JEFFERSON ACADEMY | 317 | -734 | -70 |
| CO | JULESBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. RE1 | JULESBURG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 124 | -32 | -21 |
| CO | REVERE SCHOOL DISTRICT | REVERE ELEMENTARY | 60 | -25 | -29 |
| CO | PUEBLO SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 60 IN THE COUNTY OF PUEBLO AND | MINNEQUA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 293 | -154 | -34 |
| CO | PUEBLO SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 60 IN THE COUNTY OF PUEBLO AND | RONCALLI STEM ACADEMY | 293 | -247 | -46 |
| CT | NEW HAVEN SCHOOL DISTRICT | WEXLER/GRANT COMMUNITY SCHOOL | 265 | -96 | -27 |
| CT | WATERBURY SCHOOL DISTRICT | NORTH END MIDDLE SCHOOL | 692 | -208 | -23 |
| DC | DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | MOTEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 223 | -63 | -22 |
| DC | DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | SOUSA MIDDLE SCHOOL | 215 | -74 | -26 |
| FL | ALACHUA | LAKE FOREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 330 | -93 | -22 |
| FL | ALACHUA | IDYLWILD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 533 | -153 | -22 |
| FL | BROWARD | WALKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 539 | -285 | -35 |
| FL | BROWARD | THURGOOD MARSHALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 335 | -103 | -24 |
| FL | MIAMI-DADE | PALM GLADES PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL | 286 | -80 | -22 |
| FL | MIAMI-DADE | CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS | 155 | -48 | -24 |
| FL | DUVAL | ANNIE R. MORGAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 212 | -80 | -27 |
| FL | DUVAL | REYNOLDS LANE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 222 | -73 | -25 |
| FL | DUVAL | WESTSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 593 | -179 | -23 |
| FL | DUVAL | MERRILL ROAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 419 | -183 | -30 |
| FL | DUVAL | HIGHLANDS MIDDLE SCHOOL | 697 | -198 | -22 |
| FL | DUVAL | YOUNG MENS/WOMENS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AT EUGENE J BUTLER | 333 | -193 | -37 |
| FL | ESCAMBIA | WARRINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL | 573 | -236 | -29 |
| FL | ESCAMBIA | J. H. WORKMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL | 705 | -218 | -24 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL | 593 | -228 | -28 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | BROWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 227 | -137 | -38 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | CLEVELAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 199 | -169 | -46 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | DESOTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 194 | -49 | -20 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | MILES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 675 | -174 | -20 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | MORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 770 | -205 | -21 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | OAK PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 354 | -141 | -28 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | TEMPLE TERRACE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 462 | -136 | -23 |
| FL | HILLSBOROUGH | JAMES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 386 | -161 | -29 |
| FL | ORANGE | LUCIOUS AND EMMA NIXON ACADEMY CHARTER | 104 | -51 | -33 |
| FL | PINELLAS | AZALEA MIDDLE SCHOOL | 678 | -245 | -27 |
| FL | PINELLAS | GULFPORT MONTESSORI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 435 | -187 | -30 |
| FL | PINELLAS | KINGS HIGHWAY ELEMENTARY MAGNET SCHOOL | 278 | -123 | -31 |
| FL | ST. LUCIE | CHESTER A. MOORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 366 | -216 | -37 |
| GA | CLARKE COUNTY | CLASSIC CITY HIGH SCHOOL | 24 | -45 | -65 |
| GA | DEKALB COUNTY | ELIZABETH ANDREWS HIGH SCHOOL | 267 | -144 | -35 |
| HI | HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | GOVERNOR SANFORD B DOLE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 530 | -180 | -25 |
| ID | BRUNEAU-GRAND VIEW JOINT SCHOOL DISTRICT | BRUNEAU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 39 | -10 | -20 |
| IL | A-C CENTRAL CUSD 262 | A-C CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL | 84 | -23 | -21 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | CROWN COMMUNITY ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS CENTER | 120 | -91 | -43 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | MASON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 221 | -74 | -25 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | OGLESBY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 264 | -121 | -31 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | YATES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 280 | -76 | -21 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | WARD L ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 247 | -87 | -26 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | PLATO LEARNING ACADEMY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 176 | -51 | -22 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | EPIC ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL | 345 | -174 | -34 |
| IL | CITY OF CHICAGO SD 299 | CHICAGO EXCEL ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL | 229 | -66 | -22 |
| IL | DECATUR SD 61 | STEPHEN DECATUR MIDDLE SCHOOL | 459 | -360 | -44 |
| IL | DECATUR SD 61 | HOPE ACADEMY | 563 | -160 | -22 |
| IL | DELAND-WELDON CUSD 57 | DELAND-WELDON MIDDLE SCHOOL | 21 | -11 | -34 |
| IL | EAST ST LOUIS SD 189 | EAST ST LOUIS-LINCOLN MIDDLE SCHOOL | 446 | -115 | -20 |
| IL | GRIGGSVILLE-PERRY CUSD 4 | GRIGGSVILLE-PERRY MIDDLE SCHOOL | 95 | -29 | -23 |
| IL | KANKAKEE SD 111 | KING MIDDLE GRADE SCHOOL | 344 | -132 | -28 |
| IL | KANKAKEE SD 111 | KANKAKEE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 560 | -151 | -21 |
| IL | ROCKFORD SD 205 | KENNEDY MIDDLE SCHOOL | 380 | -107 | -22 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN HIGH SCH | INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL | 208 | -53 | -20 |
| IN | NEIGHBORS' NEW VISTAS HIGH SCHOOL | NEIGHBORS' NEW VISTAS HIGH SCHOOL | 148 | -66 | -31 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BROOKSIDE SCHOOL 54 | 331 | -127 | -28 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | CHRISTIAN PARK SCHOOL 82 | 246 | -90 | -27 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | FRANCIS W PARKER SCHOOL 56 | 274 | -74 | -21 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | ROBERT LEE FROST SCHOOL 106 | 252 | -79 | -24 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | GEORGE S BUCK SCHOOL 94 | 245 | -118 | -33 |
| IN | INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS | CLARENCE FARRINGTON SCHOOL 61 | 467 | -129 | -22 |
| IA | RUTHVEN-AYRSHIRE COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT | RUTHVEN-AYRSHIRE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 87 | -29 | -25 |
| IA | WEST SIOUX COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT | IRETON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 120 | -34 | -22 |
| KS | KANSAS CITY | BANNEKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 256 | -111 | -30 |
| KS | KANSAS CITY | CHELSEA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 575 | -158 | -22 |
| KS | CENTRE | CENTRE K–12 SCHOOL | 198 | -298 | -60 |
| KS | WICHITA | ADAMS ELEMENTARY | 377 | -104 | -22 |
| KS | WICHITA | CLARK ELEMENTARY | 258 | -69 | -21 |
| KS | WICHITA | MUELLER AEROSPACE/ENGINEERING DISCOVERY | 299 | -129 | -30 |
| KY | FAIRVIEW INDEPENDENT | FAIRVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 240 | -77 | -24 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | ENGELHARD ELEMENTARY | 276 | -72 | -21 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | BYCK ELEMENTARY | 287 | -86 | -23 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | YOUNG ELEMENTARY | 209 | -129 | -38 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | MCFERRAN PREPARATORY ACADEMY | 691 | -214 | -24 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | SHELBY ACADEMY | 449 | -317 | -41 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED ACADEMY NORTH | 510 | -150 | -23 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | KENNEDY ELEMENTARY | 429 | -129 | -23 |
| KY | JEFFERSON COUNTY | BRECKINRIDGE-FRANKLIN ELEMENTARY | 266 | -159 | -37 |
| LA | CITY OF BAKER SCHOOL DISTRICT | BAKER MIDDLE SCHOOL | 176 | -62 | -26 |
| LA | DALTON CHARTER SCHOOL | DALTON CHARTER SCHOOL | 177 | -116 | -40 |
| LA | LORD BEACONSFIELD LANDRY-OLIVER PERRY WALKER HIGH | L.B. LANDRY HIGH SCHOOL | 675 | -264 | -28 |
| LA | CADDO PARISH | CRESWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 250 | -93 | -27 |
| LA | CADDO PARISH | EIGHTY-FIRST STREET ECE CENTER | 57 | -49 | -46 |
| LA | CADDO PARISH | PINE GROVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 264 | -70 | -21 |
| LA | CALCASIEU PARISH | BARBE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 164 | -101 | -38 |
| LA | CALCASIEU PARISH | JOHN J. JOHNSON II ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 149 | -50 | -25 |
| LA | CALCASIEU PARISH | OAK PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 246 | -135 | -35 |
| LA | CALCASIEU PARISH | OAK PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL | 385 | -119 | -24 |
| LA | CALCASIEU PARISH | RALPH F. WILSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 87 | -84 | -49 |
| LA | EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH | SHARON HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 252 | -76 | -23 |
| LA | JEFFERSON PARISH | STELLA WORLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL | 470 | -158 | -25 |
| LA | WEBSTER PARISH | BROWN UPPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 194 | -53 | -21 |
| ME | BROOKSVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BROOKSVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 47 | -12 | -20 |
| ME | MSAD 27 | VALLEY RIVERS MIDDLE SCHOOL | 101 | -28 | -22 |
| ME | RSU 03/MSAD 03 | WALKER MEMORIAL SCHOOL | 67 | -20 | -23 |
| ME | RSU 02 | DRESDEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 71 | -20 | -22 |
| ME | RSU 38 | MT VERNON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 86 | -25 | -23 |
| MD | BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BOOKER T. WASHINGTON MIDDLE | 157 | -85 | -35 |
| MD | BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | MATTHEW A. HENSON ELEMENTARY | 218 | -94 | -30 |
| MD | BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | AUGUSTA FELLS SAVAGE INSTITUTE OF VISUAL ARTS | 296 | -138 | -32 |
| MD | BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BLUFORD DREW JEMISON STEM ACADEMY WEST | 180 | -47 | -21 |
| MA | HELEN Y. DAVIS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY CHARTER PUBLIC (DISTRICT) | HELEN Y. DAVIS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOL | 114 | -93 | -45 |
| MA | BOSTON | FREDERICK PILOT MIDDLE SCHOOL | 323 | -131 | -29 |
| MA | SPRINGFIELD | FOREST PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL | 352 | -359 | -50 |
| MA | SPRINGFIELD | SOUTH END MIDDLE SCHOOL | 187 | -52 | -22 |
| MA | SPRINGFIELD | SPRINGFIELD MIDDLE SCHOOL | 20 | -10 | -33 |
| MA | SPRINGFIELD | IMPACT PREP AT CHESTNUT | 206 | -190 | -48 |
| MI | FLEXTECH HIGH SCHOOL | FLEXTECH HIGH SCHOOL | 177 | -75 | -30 |
| MI | OAKLAND COUNTY ACADEMY OF MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY | OAKLAND COUNTY ACADEMY OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGY | 168 | -69 | -29 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SAFETY ACADEMY | DETROIT PUBLIC SAFETY ACADEMY | 159 | -70 | -31 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 821 | -256 | -24 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | PULASKI ELEMENTARY-MIDDLE SCHOOL | 355 | -127 | -26 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | WAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 237 | -65 | -22 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | CODY HIGH SCHOOL | 466 | -129 | -22 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | HENDERSON ACADEMY | 520 | -259 | -33 |
| MI | DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT | EAST ENGLISH VILLAGE PREPARATORY ACADEMY AT FINNEY | 697 | -178 | -20 |
| MN | MINNESOTA TRANSITIONS CHARTER SCH | MTS HIGH SCHOOL | 176 | -78 | -31 |
| MN | JENNINGS COMMUNITY SCHOOL | JENNINGS EXPERIENTIAL HIGH SCHOOL | 46 | -23 | -33 |
| MN | HIGH SCHOOL FOR RECORDING ARTS | HIGH SCHOOL FOR RECORDING ARTS | 241 | -88 | -27 |
| MN | ROSA PARKS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL | ROSA PARKS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL | 51 | -20 | -28 |
| MN | SAGE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL | SAGE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL | 61 | -19 | -24 |
| MN | MINNESOTA INTERNSHIP CENTER | DOWNTOWN CAMPUS | 51 | -64 | -56 |
| MN | MINNESOTA INTERNSHIP CENTER | SOAR CAMPUS | 46 | -19 | -29 |
| MN | MINNESOTA INTERNSHIP CENTER | RONDO CAMPUS | 85 | -28 | -25 |
| MN | MINNESOTA INTERNSHIP CENTER | UNITY CAMPUS | 71 | -27 | -28 |
| MN | TWIN LAKES STEM ACADEMY | TWIN LAKES STEM ACADEMY | 147 | -48 | -25 |
| MN | MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | JENNY LIND ELEMENTARY | 249 | -89 | -26 |
| MN | MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | SOUTHWEST HIGH | 1484 | -460 | -24 |
| MN | MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | CITYVIEW ELEMENTARY | 200 | -139 | -41 |
| MN | RED LAKE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | PONEMAH ELEMENTARY | 130 | -47 | -27 |
| MN | SAINT PAUL PUBLIC SCHOOLS | OBAMA SERVICE LEARNING ELEMENTARY | 135 | -215 | -61 |
| MS | CLEVELAND SCHOOL DIST | NAILOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 237 | -93 | -28 |
| MS | EAST TALLAHATCHIE CONSOL SCH DIST | CHARLESTON MIDDLE SCHOOL | 273 | -73 | -21 |
| MS | JACKSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | MC LEOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 378 | -98 | -21 |
| MS | JACKSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | POWELL MIDDLE SCHOOL | 320 | -120 | -27 |
| MS | YAZOO CITY MUNICIPAL SCHOOL DIST | WEBSTER STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 292 | -102 | -26 |
| MO | HAZELWOOD | SOUTHEAST MIDDLE | 469 | -214 | -31 |
| MO | KANSAS CITY 33 | TROOST ELEMENTARY | 251 | -71 | -22 |
| MO | SPRINGFIELD R-XII | PIPKIN MIDDLE | 340 | -159 | -32 |
| MO | SPRINGFIELD R-XII | REED MIDDLE | 512 | -207 | -29 |
| MO | ST. LOUIS CITY | CARR LANE VPA MIDDLE | 400 | -104 | -21 |
| MO | ST. LOUIS CITY | BEAUMONT CTE HIGH SCHOOL | 236 | -121 | -34 |
| MO | ST. LOUIS CITY | SHENANDOAH ELEMENTARY | 136 | -48 | -26 |
| MO | ST. LOUIS CITY | MONROE ELEMENTARY | 158 | -81 | -34 |
| MO | ST. LOUIS CITY | GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER ELEMENTARY | 118 | -55 | -32 |
| MT | POPLAR ELEM | POPLAR 5-6 SCHOOL | 123 | -46 | -27 |
| NE | OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BENSON WEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 366 | -132 | -27 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | VON TOBEL ED MIDDLE SCHOOL | 968 | -264 | -21 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | BOOKER KERMIT R SR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 354 | -109 | -24 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | CULLEY PAUL E ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 607 | -173 | -22 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | MCCALL QUANNAH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 244 | -139 | -36 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | RED ROCK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 527 | -209 | -28 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | BELL REX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 591 | -280 | -32 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | REID HARRY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 11 | -15 | -58 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | ORR WILLIAM E MIDDLE SCHOOL | 815 | -295 | -27 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | KING JR MARTIN LUTHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 355 | -91 | -20 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | LYNCH ANN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 485 | -174 | -26 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | ROBERTS AGGIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 497 | -132 | -21 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | WEST PREPARATORY INSTITUTE JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 1231 | -391 | -24 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | KELLER DUANE D MIDDLE SCHOOL | 1082 | -385 | -26 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | DETWILER OLLIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 528 | -196 | -27 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | MOORE WILLIAM K ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 560 | -172 | -23 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | SEDWAY MARVIN M MIDDLE SCHOOL | 1041 | -274 | -21 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | 100 ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 232 | -106 | -31 |
| NV | CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | KELLER CHARLOTTE & JERRY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 501 | -143 | -22 |
| NV | ESMERALDA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | GOLDFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 25 | -8 | -24 |
| NV | NYE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | GABBS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 14 | -10 | -42 |
| NV | WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | ANDERSON ELEMENTARY | 350 | -119 | -25 |
| NV | WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | FRED W. TRANER MIDDLE SCHOOL | 531 | -154 | -22 |
| NV | WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | BERNICE MATHEWS ELEMENTARY | 441 | -112 | -20 |
| NH | MANCHESTER SCHOOL DISTRICT | BAKERSVILLE SCHOOL | 325 | -85 | -21 |
| NJ | CAMDEN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | EAST SIDE HIGH SCHOOL | 514 | -152 | -23 |
| NJ | EATONTOWN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | MEMORIAL MIDDLE SCHOOL | 176 | -45 | -20 |
| NJ | JERSEY CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | EZRA L. NOLAN SCHOOL | 234 | -69 | -23 |
| NJ | NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | RAFAEL HERNANDEZ SCHOOL | 553 | -219 | -28 |
| NJ | NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | MALCOLM X SHABAZZ HIGH SCHOOL | 272 | -90 | -25 |
| NJ | NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | SOUTH 17TH STREET SCHOOL | 335 | -116 | -26 |
| NM | ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | JANET KAHN FINE ARTS ACADEMY | 320 | -113 | -26 |
| NM | ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | VAN BUREN MIDDLE | 398 | -135 | -25 |
| NM | ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | WASHINGTON MIDDLE | 275 | -167 | -38 |
| NM | ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | LOS PUENTES CHARTER | 101 | -77 | -43 |
| NM | NEW MEXICO ACADEMY FOR THE MEDIA ARTS CHARTER | NEW MEXICO ACADEMY FOR THE MEDIA ARTS | 179 | -45 | -20 |
| NM | CESAR CHAVEZ COMMUNITY SCHOOL | CESAR CHAVEZ COMMUNITY SCHOOL | 132 | -72 | -35 |
| NM | GRANTS-CIBOLA COUNTY SCHOOLS | LAGUNA-ACOMA MIDDLE | 30 | -20 | -40 |
| NM | JEMEZ VALLEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | JEMEZ VALLEY MIDDLE | 62 | -23 | -27 |
| NM | MESA VISTA CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS | MESA VISTA MIDDLE | 34 | -14 | -29 |
| NM | SANTA FE PUBLIC SCHOOLS | EDWARD ORTIZ MIDDLE | 441 | -150 | -25 |
| NM | SOCORRO CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS | R. SARRACINO MIDDLE | 254 | -81 | -24 |
| NM | ZUNI PUBLIC SCHOOLS | SHIWI TS'ANA ELEMENTARY | 480 | -124 | -21 |
| NY | JASPER-TROUPSBURG CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT | JASPER-TROUPSBURG JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 158 | -43 | -21 |
| NY | ONEIDA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | NORTH BROAD STREET SCHOOL | 173 | -56 | -24 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 1 | UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL | 160 | -57 | -26 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 4 | PS 155 WILLIAM PACA | 182 | -58 | -24 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 5 | FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY | 815 | -278 | -25 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 5 | PS 194 COUNTEE CULLEN | 148 | -40 | -21 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 5 | PS 197 JOHN B RUSSWURM | 199 | -90 | -31 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 5 | EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN OF HARLEM | 210 | -176 | -46 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7 | PS 1 COURTLANDT SCHOOL | 458 | -161 | -26 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7 | PS 18 JOHN PETER ZENGER | 342 | -211 | -38 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7 | PS 30 WILTON | 405 | -127 | -24 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7 | MOTT HAVEN VILLAGE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL | 176 | -126 | -42 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 7 | PS/IS 224 MIDDLE SCHOOL | 198 | -83 | -30 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 8 | GOTHAM COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL | 313 | -169 | -35 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 8 | BRONX ARENA HIGH SCHOOL | 114 | -57 | -33 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 9 | PS 70 MAX SCHOENFELD | 785 | -255 | -25 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 9 | SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE | 101 | -158 | -61 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 9 | FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY III SECONDARY SCHOOL | 218 | -119 | -35 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT # 9 | VALIDUS PREPARATORY ACADEMY | 253 | -102 | -29 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #10 | PS 46 EDGAR ALLAN POE | 633 | -187 | -23 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #10 | PS 85 GREAT EXPECTATIONS | 641 | -197 | -24 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #10 | PROVIDING URBAN LEARNERS SUCCESS IN EDUCATION HIGH SCHOOL | 134 | -70 | -34 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #10 | BRONX COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL | 444 | -126 | -22 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #11 | NORTH BRONX SCHOOL OF EMPOWERMENT | 370 | -145 | -28 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12 | WINGS ACADEMY | 257 | -138 | -35 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12 | PS 47 JOHN RANDOLPH | 796 | -222 | -22 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12 | THE METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL | 154 | -120 | -44 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #12 | BRONX CAREER AND COLLEGE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL | 202 | -73 | -27 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #15 | SOUTH BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL | 103 | -45 | -30 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #18 | OLYMPUS ACADEMY | 107 | -72 | -40 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #14 | PS 250 GEORGE H LINDSAY | 284 | -119 | -30 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #19 | HIGH SCHOOL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS | 140 | -92 | -40 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #19 | SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE BROOKLYN | 105 | -66 | -39 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #19 | HIGHLAND PARK COMMUNITY SCHOOL | 277 | -88 | -24 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #23 | PS 150 CHRISTOPHER | 142 | -47 | -25 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #23 | KAPPA V (KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREP ACADEMY) | 83 | -96 | -54 |
| NY | NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #25 | NORTH QUEENS COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL | 95 | -58 | -38 |
| NY | AUBURN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | CASEY PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 392 | -104 | -21 |
| NY | BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | MARVA J DANIEL FUTURES PREPARATORY SCHOOL | 422 | -106 | -20 |
| NY | SYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | CLARY MIDDLE SCHOOL | 275 | -123 | -31 |
| NC | Z.E.C.A. SCHOOL OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY | Z.E.C.A. SCHOOL OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY | 99 | -72 | -42 |
| NC | EDGECOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | STOCKS ELEMENTARY | 407 | -132 | -24 |
| NC | WINSTON SALEM / FORSYTH COUNTY SCHOOLS | PHILO-HILL MAGNET ACADEMY | 378 | -151 | -29 |
| NC | LENOIR COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | SOUTHEAST ELEMENTARY | 190 | -48 | -20 |
| NC | WELDON CITY SCHOOLS | WELDON STEM HIGH SCHOOL CAREER ACADEMIES | 120 | -65 | -35 |
| ND | OBERON 16 | OBERON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 45 | -17 | -27 |
| OH | INVICTUS HIGH SCHOOL | INVICTUS HIGH SCHOOL | 298 | -106 | -26 |
| OH | GRAHAM SCHOOL THE | THE GRAHAM SCHOOL | 147 | -86 | -37 |
| OH | A+ ARTS ACADEMY | A+ ARTS ACADEMY | 401 | -236 | -37 |
| OH | SUMMIT ACADEMY TRANSITION HIGH SCHOOL-COLUMBUS | SUMMIT ACADEMY TRANSITION HIGH SCHOOL-COLUMBUS | 38 | -24 | -39 |
| OH | SUMMIT ACADEMY TRANSITION HIGH SCHOOL DAYTON | SUMMIT ACADEMY TRANSITION HIGH SCHOOL DAYTON | 78 | -69 | -47 |
| OH | SUMMIT ACADEMY SECONDARY SCHOOL - MIDDLETOWN | SUMMIT ACADEMY SECONDARY SCHOOL - MIDDLETOWN | 81 | -27 | -25 |
| OH | PROMISE ACADEMY | PROMISE ACADEMY | 111 | -51 | -31 |
| OH | DAYTON BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL | DAYTON BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL | 69 | -50 | -42 |
| OH | EAGLE LEARNING CENTER | EAGLE LEARNING CENTER | 50 | -17 | -25 |
| OH | ASHLAND COUNTY COMMUNITY ACADEMY | ASHLAND COUNTY COMMUNITY ACADEMY | 65 | -23 | -26 |
| OH | ROAD TO SUCCESS ACADEMY | ROAD TO SUCCESS ACADEMY | 61 | -25 | -29 |
| OH | CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL | CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL | 118 | -37 | -24 |
| OH | TOWNSEND NORTH COMMUNITY SCHOOL | TOWNSEND NORTH COMMUNITY SCHOOL | 510 | -804 | -61 |
| OH | FOCUS NORTH HIGH SCHOOL | FOCUS NORTH HIGH SCHOOL | 144 | -67 | -32 |
| OH | EAST BRANCH PREPARATORY ACADEMYDBAWRIGHT PREPARATORY ACADEMY | EAST BRANCH WRIGHT PREPARATORY ACADEMY | 131 | -35 | -21 |
| OH | ASHTABULA AREA CITY | ONTARIO PRIMARY SCHOOL | 195 | -57 | -23 |
| OH | CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS | OYLER SCHOOL | 525 | -171 | -25 |
| OH | CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS | RIVERVIEW EAST ACADEMY | 465 | -159 | -25 |
| OH | CLEVELAND MUNICIPAL | BOLTON SCHOOL | 199 | -69 | -26 |
| OH | COLUMBUS CITY SCHOOLS DISTRICT | BUCKEYE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 359 | -93 | -21 |
| OH | EAST CLEVELAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | SHAW HIGH SCHOOL | 541 | -151 | -22 |
| OH | LIMA CITY | LIMA NORTH MIDDLE SCHOOL | 308 | -78 | -20 |
| OK | FREEDOM | FREEDOM HIGH SCHOOL | 10 | -5 | -33 |
| OK | HANNA | HANNA HIGH SCHOOL | 22 | -7 | -24 |
| OK | JUSTICE | JUSTICE PUBLIC SCHOOL | 118 | -64 | -35 |
| OK | WANETTE | WANETTE HIGH SCHOOL | 31 | -13 | -30 |
| OK | WELEETKA | WELEETKA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 75 | -38 | -34 |
| OR | COOS BAY SD 9 | RESOURCE LINK CHARTER SCHOOL | 48 | -18 | -27 |
| OR | LINCOLN COUNTY SD | LINCOLN CITY CAREER TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL | 30 | -17 | -36 |
| OR | NORTH CLACKAMAS SD 12 | NEW URBAN HIGH SCHOOL | 90 | -30 | -25 |
| OR | OREGON CITY SD 62 | OREGON CITY SERVICE LEARNING ACADEMY | 109 | -54 | -33 |
| OR | PORTLAND SD 1J | ROSA PARKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 197 | -81 | -29 |
| OR | PORTLAND SD 1J | RIGLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 223 | -84 | -27 |
| OR | REYNOLDS SD 7 | SALISH PONDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 314 | -113 | -26 |
| OR | SALEM-KEIZER SD 24J | FOUR CORNERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 362 | -105 | -22 |
| OR | SPRINGFIELD SD 19 | GATEWAYS HIGH SCHOOL | 59 | -26 | -31 |
| PA | THE NEW ACADEMY CS | THE NEW ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL | 56 | -86 | -61 |
| PA | LANCASTER SD | WHEATLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL | 445 | -132 | -23 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | WASHINGTON GROVER JR SCHOOL | 443 | -140 | -24 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | STEEL EDWARD SCHOOL | 331 | -117 | -26 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | COMEGYS BENJAMIN B SCHOOL | 320 | -153 | -32 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | WAGNER GEN LOUIS MIDDLE SCHOOL | 364 | -121 | -25 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | HESTON EDWARD SCHOOL | 374 | -115 | -24 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | HARRINGTON AVERY D SCHOOL | 340 | -145 | -30 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | CLEMENTE ROBERTO MIDDLE SCHOOL | 206 | -180 | -47 |
| PA | PHILADELPHIA CITY SD | AMY AT JAMES MARTIN SCHOOL | 240 | -195 | -45 |
| PA | STO-ROX SD | STO-ROX PRIMARY CHARTER SCHOOL | 328 | -86 | -21 |
| RI | PAWTUCKET | SAMUEL SLATER MIDDLE SCHOOL | 631 | -170 | -21 |
| RI | PROVIDENCE | GOVERNOR CHRISTOPHER DELSESTO MIDDLE SCHOOL | 731 | -211 | -22 |
| RI | PROVIDENCE | GILBERT STUART MIDDLE SCHOOL | 683 | -262 | -28 |
| RI | PROVIDENCE | DR. JORGE ALVAREZ HIGH SCHOOL | 562 | -203 | -27 |
| SC | CHARLESTON 01 | NORTH CHARLESTON ELEMENTARY | 302 | -146 | -33 |
| SC | DARLINGTON 01 | THORNWELL SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS | 181 | -102 | -36 |
| SC | FLORENCE 03 | RONALD E. MCNAIR JR. HIGH | 209 | -128 | -38 |
| SD | TODD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 66-1 | O'KREEK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - 14 | 30 | -10 | -25 |
| SD | SMEE SCHOOL DISTRICT 15-3 | WAKPALA MIDDLE SCHOOL - 04 | 37 | -17 | -31 |
| TN | ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | BRICK CHURCH: A LEAD PUBLIC SCHOOL | 229 | -108 | -32 |
| TN | ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOL DISTRICT | MEMPHIS SCHOLARS RALEIGH-EGYPT CHARTER SCHOOL | 78 | -27 | -26 |
| TN | MEMPHIS-SHELBY COUNTY SCHOOLS | WINCHESTER ELEMENTARY | 422 | -179 | -30 |
| TN | HAMILTON COUNTY | DALEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL | 258 | -119 | -32 |
| TN | HAMILTON COUNTY | ORCHARD KNOB MIDDLE | 334 | -100 | -23 |
| TN | KNOX COUNTY | SARAH MOORE GREENE MAGNET TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY | 453 | -114 | -20 |
| TX | PRIORITY CHARTER SCHOOLS | CEDAR PARK CHARTER ACADEMY | 127 | -39 | -23 |
| TX | LUMIN EDUCATION | LUMIN LINDSLEY PARK COMMUNITY SCHOOL | 223 | -85 | -28 |
| TX | JUBILEE ACADEMIES | JUBILEE HIGHLAND HILLS | 780 | -218 | -22 |
| TX | TEXAS PREPARATORY SCHOOL | TEXAS PREPARATORY SCHOOL - AUSTIN CAMPUS | 42 | -48 | -53 |
| TX | AMBASSADORS PREPARATORY ACADEMY | AMBASSADORS PREPARATORY ACADEMY | 170 | -111 | -40 |
| TX | ALVIN ISD | ALVIN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 769 | -213 | -22 |
| TX | ALVIN ISD | G W HARBY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 610 | -201 | -25 |
| TX | ARLINGTON ISD | SHORT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 390 | -106 | -21 |
| TX | AUSTIN ISD | BEDICHEK MIDDLE | 675 | -174 | -20 |
| TX | AUSTIN ISD | PAREDES MIDDLE | 657 | -255 | -28 |
| TX | BEAUMONT ISD | M L KING MIDDLE | 480 | -264 | -35 |
| TX | BEAUMONT ISD | MARTIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 486 | -131 | -21 |
| TX | BROOKS COUNTY ISD | FALFURRIAS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 274 | -80 | -23 |
| TX | CORPUS CHRISTI ISD | MARTIN MIDDLE | 441 | -170 | -28 |
| TX | CROCKETT COUNTY CONSOLIDATED CSD | OZONA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 306 | -78 | -20 |
| TX | EDGEWOOD ISD | GUS GARCIA MIDDLE | 505 | -198 | -28 |
| TX | EDGEWOOD ISD | L B JOHNSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 348 | -101 | -22 |
| TX | EDGEWOOD ISD | MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL | 872 | -294 | -25 |
| TX | EL PASO ISD | CANYON HILLS MIDDLE | 524 | -167 | -24 |
| TX | FORT WORTH ISD | PHALEN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AT JAMES MARTIN JACQUET | 569 | -175 | -24 |
| TX | FORT WORTH ISD | LEADERSHIP ACADEMY AT FOREST OAK 6TH GRADE | 314 | -97 | -24 |
| TX | FORT WORTH ISD | VAN ZANDT-GUINN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 338 | -105 | -24 |
| TX | FORT WORTH ISD | MORNINGSIDE MIDDLE | 484 | -188 | -28 |
| TX | FORT WORTH ISD | WEDGWOOD 6TH GRADE SCHOOL | 309 | -118 | -28 |
| TX | FREER ISD | FREER HIGH SCHOOL | 170 | -52 | -23 |
| TX | GORMAN ISD | MAXFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 105 | -44 | -30 |
| TX | GRANDFALLS-ROYALTY ISD | GRANDFALLS-ROYALTY SCHOOL | 137 | -45 | -25 |
| TX | HOUSTON ISD | EDISON MIDDLE | 460 | -205 | -31 |
| TX | HUBBARD ISD | HUBBARD ISD K–8 SCHOOL | 77 | -40 | -34 |
| TX | JEFFERSON ISD | JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 275 | -79 | -22 |
| TX | LUBBOCK ISD | SLATON MIDDLE | 355 | -150 | -30 |
| TX | MILANO ISD | MILANO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 71 | -30 | -30 |
| TX | NEW BRAUNFELS ISD | MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 293 | -115 | -28 |
| TX | PASADENA ISD | FREEMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 374 | -159 | -30 |
| TX | RALLS ISD | RALLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 192 | -49 | -20 |
| TX | RICE CISD | RICE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 256 | -66 | -20 |
| TX | SAN ANGELO ISD | ALTA LOMA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 278 | -73 | -21 |
| TX | SAN ANGELO ISD | LONE STAR MIDDLE | 903 | -235 | -21 |
| TX | SAN ANTONIO ISD | LONGFELLOW MIDDLE | 646 | -225 | -26 |
| TX | SAN BENITO CISD | MILLER JORDAN MIDDLE | 640 | -173 | -21 |
| TX | SOUTH SAN ANTONIO ISD | DWIGHT MIDDLE | 432 | -142 | -25 |
| TX | SPRING ISD | DUEITT MIDDLE | 773 | -217 | -22 |
| TX | SPRING ISD | STELLE CLAUGHTON MIDDLE | 912 | -256 | -22 |
| TX | STAMFORD ISD | STAMFORD MIDDLE | 110 | -35 | -24 |
| UT | CITY ACADEMY | CITY ACADEMY | 116 | -31 | -21 |
| UT | GRANITE DISTRICT | ACADEMY PARK SCHOOL | 370 | -131 | -26 |
| UT | GRANITE DISTRICT | WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL | 461 | -186 | -29 |
| VA | BUCKINGHAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | BUCKINGHAM CO PRIMARY | 355 | -97 | -21 |
| VA | NORFOLK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | RICHARD BOWLING ELEMENTARY | 465 | -117 | -20 |
| VA | NORFOLK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | WILLIAM H. RUFFNER MIDDLE | 436 | -143 | -25 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | HENRY MARSH III ELEMENTARY | 493 | -487 | -50 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. MIDDLE | 501 | -130 | -21 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | OVERBY-SHEPPARD ELEMENTARY | 268 | -85 | -24 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | WOODVILLE ELEMENTARY | 267 | -112 | -30 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | LUCILLE M. BROWN MIDDLE | 543 | -305 | -36 |
| VA | RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | THOMAS C. BOUSHALL MIDDLE | 611 | -194 | -24 |
| WA | LAKE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | LAKE WASHINGTON TECHNICAL ACADEMY | 251 | -83 | -25 |
| WA | CHEHALIS SCHOOL DISTRICT | GREEN HILL ACADEMIC SCHOOL | 94 | -54 | -36 |
| WA | CLOVER PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT | TILLICUM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 250 | -117 | -32 |
| WA | CLOVER PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT | LAKEVIEW HOPE ACADEMY | 534 | -136 | -20 |
| WA | KELLER SCHOOL DISTRICT | KELLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 30 | -10 | -25 |
| WA | MABTON SCHOOL DISTRICT | ARTZ FOX ELEMENTARY | 396 | -100 | -20 |
| WA | VANCOUVER SCHOOL DISTRICT | FRUIT VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 190 | -48 | -20 |
| WA | WELLPINIT SCHOOL DISTRICT #49 | WELLPINIT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 148 | -53 | -26 |
| WV | CALHOUN COUNTY SCHOOLS | ARNOLDSBURG SCHOOL | 164 | -46 | -22 |
| WV | KANAWHA COUNTY SCHOOLS | EAST BANK MIDDLE SCHOOL | 254 | -106 | -29 |
| WV | LINCOLN COUNTY SCHOOLS | RANGER ELEMENTARY | 76 | -30 | -28 |
| WV | LINCOLN COUNTY SCHOOLS | DUVAL PK–8 SCHOOL | 351 | -141 | -29 |
| WV | MCDOWELL COUNTY SCHOOLS | KIMBALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 159 | -87 | -35 |
| WV | NICHOLAS COUNTY SCHOOLS | CHERRY RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 151 | -46 | -23 |
| WV | PUTNAM COUNTY SCHOOLS | LAKESIDE ELEMENTARY | 174 | -46 | -21 |
| WV | WAYNE COUNTY SCHOOLS | WAYNE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 371 | -109 | -23 |
| WV | WYOMING COUNTY SCHOOLS | MULLENS MIDDLE SCHOOL | 135 | -40 | -23 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | CLARKE STREET ELEMENTARY | 192 | -73 | -28 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | HI-MOUNT ELEMENTARY | 149 | -49 | -25 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | MILWAUKEE SIGN LANGUAGE ELEMENTARY | 429 | -148 | -26 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | LAFOLLETTE ELEMENTARY | 183 | -57 | -24 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | MARSHALL HIGH | 798 | -251 | -24 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | RIVERWEST ELEMENTARY | 258 | -82 | -24 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | TOWNSEND STREET ELEMENTARY | 280 | -71 | -20 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | CARSON ACADEMY | 350 | -108 | -24 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | LINCOLN MIDDLE | 374 | -247 | -40 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | BROWN STREET ACADEMY | 223 | -86 | -28 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | CARVER ACADEMY | 351 | -135 | -28 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | ALLIANCE SCHOOL OF MILWAUKEE | 145 | -43 | -23 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | WHS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL | 417 | -189 | -31 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | SIEFERT ELEMENTARY | 234 | -68 | -23 |
| WI | MILWAUKEE SCHOOL DISTRICT | KING INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE MIDDLE | 271 | -112 | -29 |
| WI | RACINE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT | STARBUCK - AN IB WORLD SCHOOL | 509 | -178 | -26 |
| WY | FREMONT COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT #21 | FT. WASHAKIE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 62 | -28 | -31 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | GENEROSO MORALES MUNOZ MIDDLE SCHOOL | 216 | -81 | -27 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | PLAYA GRANDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 177 | -64 | -27 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | ALFONSO DIAZ LEBRON MIDDLE SCHOOL | 219 | -125 | -36 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | ANTONIO VALERO BERNABE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 208 | -70 | -25 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | FRANCISCO ZAYAS SANTANA MIDDLE SCHOOL | 343 | -108 | -24 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | LOAIZA CORDERO DEL ROSARIO HIGH SCHOOL | 270 | -145 | -35 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | DR. PILA HIGH SCHOOL | 296 | -108 | -27 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | PONCE HIGH SCHOOL | 557 | -322 | -37 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | ERNESTO RAMOS ANTONINI PONCE K–8 SCHOOL | 201 | -108 | -35 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | FRANCISCA DAVILA SEMPRIT K–8 SCHOOL | 239 | -82 | -26 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | ALBERT EINSTEIN HIGH SCHOOL | 201 | -169 | -46 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA HIGH SCHOOL | 171 | -82 | -32 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | PACHIN MARIN MIDDLE SCHOOL | 225 | -105 | -32 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ SAN JUAN MIDDLE SCHOOL | 208 | -72 | -26 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | JUAN PONCE DE LEON K–12 SCHOOL | 271 | -94 | -26 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | RAFAEL MARTINEZ NADAL GUAYNABO MIDDLE SCHOOL | 202 | -53 | -21 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | ONOFRE CARBALLEIRA MIDDLE SCHOOL | 206 | -92 | -31 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ BAYAMON MIDDLE SCHOOL | 252 | -73 | -22 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | FERNANDO CALLEJO HIGH SCHOOL | 333 | -96 | -22 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | BASILIO MILAN HERNANDEZ MIDDLE SCHOOL | 358 | -137 | -28 |
| PR | PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION | LUIS MUNOZ MARIN YABUCOA MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL | 144 | -79 | -35 |
[1] Krista Kaput, Carrie Hahnel, and Biko McMillan, “Why Is Public K-12 Enrollment Declining?” in How Student Enrollment Declines Are Affecting Education Budgets, Explained in 10 Figures, Bellwether, September 2024, https://bellwether.org/publications/How-Student-Enrollment-Declines-are-Affecting-Education-Budgets/?activeTab=3.
[2] Linda Jacobson, “Exclusive Data: Thousands of Schools at Risk of Closing Due to Enrollment Loss,” The 74, January 9, 2024, https://www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-data-thousands-of-schools-at-risk-of-closing-due-to-enrollment-loss/.
[3] Hannah Schmid, “3-in-10 Seats Are Empty at Chicago Public Schools,” Illinois Policy, July 12, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/3-in-10-seats-are-empty-at-chicago-public-schools/.
[4] Colleston Morgan, “OPINION: Milwaukee’s Students Cannot Afford for MPS to (Just) Maintain and Sustain: We Need a Plan,” Milwaukee NNS, March 8, 2024, https://milwaukeenns.org/2024/03/08/opinion-milwaukees-students-cannot-afford-for-mps-to-just-maintain-and-sustain-we-need-a-plan/.
[5] Joan Murray, “Did Your Child’s School Make the List of Broward Schools Considered Under-Enrolled?,” CBS News, February 8, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/did-your-childs-school-make-the-list-of-broward-schools-considered-under-enrolled/.
[6] Jacob Sanchez, “These Fort Worth ISD Schools Could Be Among First Considered for Closures,” KERA News, November 20, 2023, https://www.keranews.org/education/2023-11-20/these-fort-worth-isd-schools-could-be-among-first-considered-for-closures.
[7] Chunping Han, Ph.D., Margaret E. Raymond, Ph.D., James L. Woodworth, Ph.D., Yohannes Negassi, M.A., W. Payton Richardson, M.A., and Will Snow, M.A., Charter School Closure: Volume I: An Examination of Charter School Closure and Performance, Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), 2017, https://credo.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/closure_final_volume_i.pdf; Deven Carlson, Stéphane Lavertu, Aaron Churchill, and Michael J. Petrilli, School Closures and Student Achievement: An Analysis of Ohio’s Urban District and Charter Schools, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, April 27, 2015, https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/research/school-closures-and-student-achievement-analysis-ohios-urban-district-and-charter.
[8] Schmid, “3-in-10 Seats.”
[9] We’re aware that many of these schools enroll traditionally underserved students. But careful research suggests that, while predominantly Black schools are more likely to be closed, that fact is entirely explained by the fact that they are more likely to be underenrolled and underperforming. And of course, if closures affect Black students disproportionately, then so too do whatever academic benefits are associated with them. See https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/stop-playing-race-card-school-closures.
[10] Sofoklis Goulas, “Breaking Down Enrollment Declines in Public Schools,” Brookings, March 14, 2024, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/breaking-down-enrollment-declines-in-public-schools/.
[11] According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the Title I program provides supplemental financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families. Those funds are distributed to schools based on the percentage of low-income students that they serve.
[12] Burtis, Eloise, and Sofoklis Goulas. 2023. “Declining School Enrollment since the Pandemic.” The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Goulas, Sofoklis. 2024. “Breaking Down Enrollment Declines in Public Schools.” The Hamilton Project, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Dee, Thomas S. 2023. “Where the Kids Went: Nonpublic Schooling and Demographic Change During the Pandemic Exodus from Public Schools.” Teachers College Record 125 (6): 119–129.
[13] Because of the timing of this report, it’s unlikely that many schools were identified based on this criterion.
[14] “School Improvement and Related Provisions Under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).” 2024. Department of Education. https://oese.ed.gov/files/2024/09/School-Improvement-Guidance-public-comment.pdf
[15] Lyons, Susan, et al. 2017. “State Systems of Identification and Support Under ESSA: A Focus on Designing and Revising Systems of School Identification.” Council of Chief State School Officers. Washington, D.C. https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/State%20Systems%20of%20ID%20and%20Support%20-%20Designing%20and%20Revising%20Systems_0.pdf
[16] “Nevada’s 2023 Comprehensive Support and Intervention Schools.” Nevada Department of Education. https://nevadareportcard.nv.gov/DI/MoreDownload?filename=2023%20Nevada%20Comprehensive%20Support%20and%20Improvement%20(CSI)%20Schools.pdf
[17] “Federal School Improvement: Business Rules and Guidelines.” Arizona Department of Education. https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2023/08/FSI%20Business%20Rules%20SY23-24%20%285%29.pdf
[18] Gordon, Dan, et al. 2018. “Roadmap to Implementing the CCSSO Principles of Effective School Systems.” https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/Roadmap%20CCSSO%20Principles%20of%20Effective%20Systems%20of%20School%20Improvement.pdf
This report was made possible by our sister organization, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, as well as by numerous other individuals. We are especially grateful to Sofoklis Goulas for agreeing to partner with us and for conducting the analysis that is the basis for the report. We also thank Anne Hyslop, Director of Policy Development at All4Ed, for her timely feedback and Dave Williams for designing the figures and tables.
At Fordham, we would like to thank David Griffith for managing the project and finetuning the report, Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Jeanette Luna for reviewing drafts, Victoria McDougald for disseminating the report, Elainah Elkins for handling funder communications, Devon Nir for attending to quality control, Brandon Wright for help with copy editing, and Stephanie Distler for developing the report’s cover art and coordinating production.
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Education in the United States remains incredibly partisan, and the presidential race offers no relief. Red states want less exposure to race and gender in schools; blue states want more. Red states expand school choice laws; blue states shrink them. Players on all sides pitch education as a zero-sum game. Even research is weaponized to demonstrate the superiority—or inferiority—of different types of schools, whether district, charter or private. Social cohesion across differences? In many quarters, this feels like a bridge too far.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, for most places in the world, it isn’t. That’s because most countries fund a wide variety of schools and hold them all accountable for academic results. This approach is called educational pluralism, and it animates school systems from Europe to Asia, from Canada to Australia and across southern Africa. The Netherlands funds thirty-six kinds of schools equally; the government of Indonesia supports secular and religious schools alike; the Australian federal government is the top funder of independent schools in the country because of their ability to close achievement gaps for low-income students. In fact, 171 of the 204 school systems tracked by UNESCO rely on public-private partnerships, the volunteer sector, and community organizations to deliver education for all.
In U.S. terms, educational pluralism means school choice and accountability by design. It acknowledges that schools that reflect distinctive norms and values often bring real benefits to students—so these governments fund a variety of school types. It also assumes that education is not merely a private good, but also a common project whose outcomes affect society as a whole; therefore, public concern and oversight of academic content is appropriate.
Educational pluralism is not perfect, but if implemented with care, it can function as an escape valve against constant conflict; while it deliberately honors families’ diverse values, it also builds social cohesion by insisting that everyone share a broad base of knowledge, such as capital cities of the world, twentieth-century poetry, the history and impact of the American Revolution, or the tenets of major religions. This common content would include, as a matter of course, exposure to a variety of viewpoints and beliefs without indoctrinating students as to their merits. For instance, the English government has funded religious schools since 1834 and secular schools since 1870, but all students in all schools learn about diverse religions and philosophies.
Here are three practical steps toward the pluralist ideal that elected officials and candidates alike in the U.S. could get behind.
The first step: Find a cross-partisan message that invites rather than condemns. This means putting down rhetorical weapons and eschewing charged terms such as “educational marketplace” (on the right) or “privatization” (on the left).
Second, focus on initiatives that welcome all schools. High-quality curriculum and instruction is a good place to start. Teachers in every school need access to rigorous materials that challenge students’ minds and enliven their hearts. They also need time to learn what the materials require in the classroom. This is exactly what a state department of education can provide across the board, and many—including Louisiana, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin—already do, though only for those who work in district schools. Why not teachers in any type of school?
Third, build the infrastructure to support both choice and quality. A great example is Indianapolis’s The Mind Trust, a nonprofit that, since 2006, has recruited teachers into the state, launched four dozen charter schools and partnered with the city’s public school district to design schools that by design meet their communities’ specific needs. They don’t pit schools against each other; rather, they help all schools in Indianapolis grow stronger. Since 2021, the organization has partnered with the Indiana General Assembly and the state Department of Education to accelerate students’ academic recovery, in two ways. Indiana Learns gives eligible students access to math and reading tutoring, and Summer Learning Labs offer a rigorous, five-week, free or low-cost summer academic and enrichment program. The nation needs more of such thoughtful approaches that champion instead of demeaning teachers and set a high bar for academic success.
Policies that fund a variety of schools with distinctive world views, while incentivizing the use of curricula that build robust knowledge across the major subjects, would constitute an unfamiliar “both/and” to an American audience. This approach asks a lot of teachers, parents, and young people. But if Belgium, South Africa, and many Canadian provinces can lean into productive pluralism, so can the United States.
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Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit that makes college-level courses and college credit free to any learner anywhere, including high school students interested in advanced coursework. It offers thirty-two online courses free of charge at www.modernstates.org, including all the necessary textbooks and readings. Each is designed to help participants learn the content tested on the corresponding College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams and earn a passing score, which would be recognized for credit at almost 3,000 college and universities around the country. I spoke with Jefferson Pestronk to learn more about the organization, how its offerings differ from Advanced Placement and dual enrollment, and more.
Why is advanced coursework, like what you offer, important to offer our students? And how do you address opportunity gaps—students from marginalized backgrounds participating much less in advance coursework than their more advantaged peers?
Access to advanced coursework is critically important. Learners who take college-level courses and earn college credits before reaching college save time and money on their path to a degree, and are more likely to actually earn a degree.
Beyond that simple value proposition, there is extensive research documenting the benefits of advanced coursework. Learners who take advanced courses in high school are more engaged while in high school; are likelier to graduate, go to college, and earn a degree; and gain confidence from taking advanced courses. Adult learners who enter college with credit end up taking more courses while enrolled, meaning that higher education institutions also benefit from learner access to advanced coursework.
But there are also well-documented gaps in access to advanced courses, even for students who could succeed in them. This is doubly true for students after they leave high school; while many schools and districts have programs like Advanced Placement or dual enrollment that help students take college-level courses for free, there are many fewer such programs for college-age and adult learners.
We believe that all learners should have the opportunity to excel, and that with currently-existing approaches and technology, it’s possible to live up to that goal. We partner with high schools, two- and four-year colleges, and community organizations to provide targeted support and resources to underrepresented students. We have active programs and partnerships in place throughout the U.S., including in New York City, Tennessee, and Ohio; through universities like Purdue University and Norfolk State University; and with nonprofits including TheDream.US.
By breaking down accessibility and funding barriers, we are helping create a more equitable educational landscape where every individual has the chance to thrive in advanced coursework. This is especially important as college costs continue to rise and as college seems out of reach for too many Americans. One of the reasons our founder and CEO, Steve Klinsky, created Modern States seven years ago was to push back on these trends and keep college within reach of anyone who wanted to attend. We believe our program is a game-changer for school districts, colleges, and individual learners across the country, and we are proud to play a role in opening the door to higher education for all students.
How is Modern States different from other approaches, like Advanced Placement or dual enrollment?
Most importantly, Modern States is available to any learner anywhere, when they want to engage. Unlike programs like AP or dual enrollment that traditionally require learners to engage through their schools, and that are limited to certain learners, Modern States provides a direct on-ramp to college and reduces educational costs for all. This is particularly valuable for learners who have left high school, or who aren’t enrolled in traditional high schools like homeschooled students, and don’t have access to Advanced Placement or dual enrollment or other early college options that high school students often access for free.
Our approach also is very flexible, allowing learners to study at their own pace and on their own schedule. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for adults with varying life circumstances who might not be able to commit to being on campus or logging into a class at a certain time.
What effect has being free had on uptake both at the family and school level?
We often hear from learners that Modern States put college within their reach, even after they had thought it had passed them by. We don’t confer degrees ourselves, so learners who use our courses still need to attend college to earn their degree, but by using Modern States they end up enrolling in college having already made very substantial progress towards a degree. Depending where they ultimately enroll, they can save thousands of dollars and many hours of course time.
We’re also increasingly hearing from school administrators and teachers that are using our courses in creative ways. At a minimum, they save schools a lot of money and help ensure they can offer advanced coursework to any student who is interested. But as anyone who has worked with schools and educators knows, they are enormously creative. For example, we’ve heard from a number of schools that they align Modern States content with classes they’re already offering. And some students in their classes will do both the high school work and the Modern States college work, so that, by the end of a term, they have basically bootstrapped a dual enrollment course and earned both high school and college credit with no additional costs, teachers, classrooms, and so on.
What is next for Modern States?
We are focused on a few big priorities. First, we’re working on building out partnerships that can help us expand the number of learners we serve and improve the quality of support that learners receive. This means newly working with leaders in states like Ohio, where there is widespread CLEP acceptance along with some local funding and support. It also means working to deepen existing partnerships, like the ones we have with universities such as Purdue and Norfolk State University, both of which use Modern States to streamline admissions.
We’re also excited to explore how to integrate emerging technologies like generative AI into our model. We have a particularly interesting use case because so many of our learners are engaging on their own or in contexts where they can’t get direct academic support. AI-powered tools like integrated tutors can help explain instruction differently, plug gaps in prior knowledge, and improve assessment at scale. They’re not perfect solutions, but they’re getting better, and they can offer really valuable complements to other support.
Last, as we grow, it becomes increasingly important for us to find partners and supporters who can help us keep the program free to learners. Several states, like Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia, and some institutions like the U.S. military, make CLEP exams free or low cost for learners because they have recognized how powerful they can be. We’re looking to work with more public institutions—in addition to private funders—who want to do similar things.
Ohio has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the post-pandemic academic recovery—but also much work left to do. That’s the message that comes out of my recent analysis of spring 2024 state assessment data released earlier this month.
Given our natural inclination to focus on the negative, it is important to start with the good news. In English language arts (ELA), our state has demonstrated tremendous success remediating the learning disruptions we saw emerge in the first year of the pandemic. Indeed, with the exception of eighth graders, Ohio students appear to have completely reversed the large initial achievement declines. And in a number of grades, students performed better last spring than their counterparts before the pandemic. The recovery has been broad-based, benefiting every type of school district and every student subgroup, helping reverse some of the worrying racial- and economically-based achievement gaps we saw grow in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic learning disruptions.
Ohio’s progress on ELA is particularly noteworthy when compared to the broader national landscape. Recently released reports from private assessment companies have painted a bleak picture of stagnation, and on some assessments, students falling further behind. Although it’s not clear why Ohio has bucked this depressing national trend, our state’s concerted focus on improving reading instruction and professional development focused on the latest scientific insights on how students learn how to read may have helped.
Unfortunately, when it comes to math, Ohio’s recovery remains incomplete. Part of this is because the initial achievement declines in math were just much larger, in absolute terms, than in ELA. Even given the same learning gains, it would have taken Ohio students more time to climb back to pre-pandemic levels. And indeed, we did see considerable progress several years ago, with accelerated achievement growth beginning to offset a meaningful share of the pandemic-era losses.
But this progress appears to have stalled out last year, with little evidence of continued math recovery between spring 2023 and 2024 in most grades. As a result, elementary school students remain about a month behind pre-pandemic cohorts in math, with the gap rising to between one-third and one-half of a school year in middle school grades.
Figure 1: Post-pandemic academic recovery by grade in ELA (top) and math (bottom)
The latest numbers point to several important lessons for Ohio policymakers, particularly as they continue to focus on addressing the math achievement shortfall. One is the importance—and limitations—of funding and the other relates to timely data.
On the funding side, the federal government provided school districts across the country more than $200 billion in pandemic-era aid, an unprecedented investment with the stated intent of helping support learning recovery. Ohio schools received more than $6 billion of this funding, and my analyses suggest the money played a role in the partial math rebound: Districts that received more aid, a function of a fixed federal allocation formula, saw their math achievement recover faster in recent years. The magnitude of this effect, however, was fairly modest, with a $1,000 increase in per-student funding raising math achievement by about 0.02 standard deviations. To put that number in context, it would take at least an additional $5,000 for every student in the state to close the remaining math gap at this rate—more than the total amount of federal pandemic aid in Ohio. It seems highly unlikely such a level of investment will be available, especially since the deadline for spending down the remaining federal aid is this year.
Fortunately, the recent improvements in ELA suggests that further progress is possible even in the absence of significant new resources. Unlike in math, where district-level growth depended on the available federal funding, differences in ELA gains across districts were not related to the amount of federal aid that local communities received. The statewide success in addressing the ELA shortfalls show what can be accomplished with sustained focus and attention.
The second lesson is about the importance of timely, accurate data to guide policy. After the cancellation of state tests in spring 2020 at the height of the pandemic, some school employee interest groups saw an opportunity and tried to rally lawmakers to permanently eliminate state testing and accountability linked to it. Wisely, our state leaders resisted these efforts. To the credit of Governor DeWine and top leaders at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Ohio has been a national leader in working with independent researchers like myself to evaluate state and local recovery efforts and making these results public, even when they didn’t always paint a flattering picture.
This has not been the case in some other states. California, for example, threatened to sue a Stanford researcher whose data portrayed the state’s ham-fisted school reopening and recovery efforts in a negative light. But here in Ohio, we’ve had quality data that have allowed policymakers to clearly understand the magnitude of the academic setbacks, identify school districts and student subgroups most affected, and track progress over time.
Ohio continues to show the country what can be accomplished when we make student achievement a priority. We have made tremendous progress, but it is also clear that the job is not yet complete. It is essential that that academic considerations—as opposed to various education culture wars—remain at the top of our agenda.
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State report cards released
Ohio released school and district report cards for the 2023-2024 school year late last week. As ever, there is a mix of good news and bad news for almost everyone. Cleveland.com was first out of the gate with specific coverage of charter school performance, although this piece is mainly a chart of schools searchable by various report card component grades. Fordham’s Aaron Churchill published a comparison between charter and district performance in Ohio’s eight largest cities. He sees “promising signs of quality” for students in our urban areas, “particularly in the charter sector”. Nice!
Singled out
One of those high-performing urban charter schools is Toledo Preparatory and Fitness Academy, and it was lauded for its excellence—along with similarly-high-quality district schools—in a piece from The Blade’s Editorial Board earlier this week. However, the bulk of the piece is a call for more state support for those schools—way too many of them in northwest Ohio—that fall short of providing a great education for their students.
Research findings under the microscope
The latest edition of the podcast Education Exchange with Paul E. Peterson features researcher Sarah Cohodes discussing the fascinating findings from her recent Massachusetts study showing that urban charter schools raise student test scores (compared to districts) while non-urban charters do not provide such a boost. However, charter schools in both settings increase students’ college graduation rates.
Relief in Chicago
Chicago Public Schools officials this week unveiled their new five-year strategic plan. While they stayed true to their promise to improve education for city students, the plan appears to back off a previous board resolution to make changes that were said to favor district schools over charters. Charter school families were understandably concerned by the potential for harm to their schools, and CPS officials confirmed that strong parent response played a role in shaping their final decisions.
You’re invited to a Charter Chat
The National Charter Schools Institute is hosting a virtual event on Tuesday, September 24, at 3:00 pm ET. “From Belief to Achievement” will feature a panel of charter experts discussing how they cultivate an atmosphere and community-wide belief system that all students can succeed. You can learn more about the event and the participants, as well as register to attend, at this link.
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News stories featured in Gadfly Bites may require a paid subscription to read in full. Just sayin’.
Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
