States Ranked by K-12 Education Outcomes
All 50 states scored on 2024 Nation's Report Card results in fourth and eighth grade reading and math, checked against high school graduation rates.
How this ranking works
This ranking measures student outcomes, not education spending, teacher pay, or policy intentions. The primary evidence is the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal test known as the Nation's Report Card, administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to representative samples of fourth and eighth graders in every state in early 2024. Four assessments count: grade 4 reading, grade 4 math, grade 8 reading, and grade 8 math. A state's standing across all four drives roughly 80 percent of its composite score. The remaining weight goes to the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) published by NCES, most recently for the 2022-23 school year, used as a completion check on the test data.
Every state is ranked, top to bottom, all 50 in sequence. The composite score is ordinal and analytical. No official government ranking of state school systems exists, so the index here is built from the official data and should be read as an ordering, not a precise measurement. States in the middle of the table, roughly ranks 18 through 38, cluster tightly around the national average and can swap adjacent positions depending on which of the four assessments is weighted most; the top and bottom tiers are not close calls. Where third-party analyses are used, they are named: the Urban Institute's demographically adjusted 2024 NAEP rankings and ExcelinEd and Learning Policy Institute tabulations of 2024 state results are cited where relevant, and this ranking uses raw, unadjusted scores as its base.
The framework pays no attention to which party controls a state's government, how much a state spends per pupil, or what its leaders say about schools. Only measured outcomes count. If that principle produces surprises in both directions, the surprises belong to the data.
1MassachusettsNortheast, approx. 900,000 public school students100.0
The highest numeric score of any state on all four 2024 NAEP assessments, including a 246 in fourth grade math and a 225 in fourth grade reading. Fifty-one percent of its fourth graders scored at or above NAEP Proficient in math, the highest rate of any state (NCES, NAEP 2024; Mass.gov, 2025).
The receipts: Massachusetts posted the top state scale score on all four 2024 NAEP assessments and a 51 percent fourth grade math proficiency rate, the highest in the country against a national 39 percent (NCES, 2024; Mass.gov, 2025). Its graduation rate also exceeds the national average, so the completion check confirms rather than contradicts the test data.
2New JerseyNortheast97.6
Top five nationally in both eighth grade reading and eighth grade math in 2024, and one of only five states in the eighth grade reading top ten on both raw and demographically adjusted rankings (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: New Jersey placed top five in both eighth grade reading and eighth grade math in 2024 and is one of only five states in the eighth grade reading top ten on both raw and demographically adjusted rankings, a rare consistency across methods (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025).
3ConnecticutNortheast96.3
Ranked second through fifth in the nation in eighth grade reading in 2024 and appears in the top ten on both unadjusted and demographically adjusted rankings (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Connecticut ranked among the top five states in eighth grade reading in 2024 and appears in the eighth grade reading top ten on both raw and demographically adjusted lists (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025).
4New HampshireNortheast95.5
One of the top five states in eighth grade reading on the 2024 assessment (Learning Policy Institute analysis of NCES data, 2025).
The receipts: New Hampshire ranked among the top five states in eighth grade reading on the 2024 NAEP and scored above the national average across all four assessments (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; NCES, 2024).
5ColoradoMountain West94.8
Second through fifth nationally in eighth grade reading in 2024, and one of five states in the top ten on both raw and demographically adjusted eighth grade reading rankings (Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Colorado ranked among the top five states in eighth grade reading in 2024 and is one of five states in the eighth grade reading top ten on both raw and demographically adjusted rankings (Urban Institute, 2025).
6UtahMountain West93.9
Among the top five states in eighth grade math on the 2024 assessment, achieved with one of the lowest per-pupil spending levels in the country (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; NCES).
The receipts: Utah placed top five in eighth grade math on the 2024 NAEP while spending among the least per pupil of any state, a strong outcome-per-dollar result (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; NCES).
7WisconsinMidwest93.0
Top five nationally in eighth grade math in 2024 (Learning Policy Institute analysis of NCES data, 2025).
The receipts: Wisconsin ranked among the top five states in eighth grade math on the 2024 NAEP and above the national average in the other three assessments (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; NCES, 2024).
8MinnesotaMidwest92.2
Top five in eighth grade math in 2024 (Learning Policy Institute, 2025). A caution in the data: demographically adjusted analyses place Minnesota far lower, around the national middle (Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Minnesota placed top five in eighth grade math in 2024, but demographically adjusted analysis drops it to around the national middle, a caution that its raw strength partly reflects student demographics (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025).
9WyomingMountain West91.5
Scored above the national average in reading and math at both grades in 2024 and held steady with 2022 while national reading scores declined (Wyoming Department of Education; NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Wyoming scored above the national average on all four 2024 assessments and held its scores steady from 2022 while national reading fell, one of the few states to avoid the reading slide (NCES, 2024; Wyoming Department of Education).
10IllinoisMidwest90.7
One of only five states in the eighth grade reading top ten on both the raw and demographically adjusted 2024 rankings (Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Illinois is one of only five states appearing in the eighth grade reading top ten on both the raw and demographically adjusted 2024 rankings, a mark of genuine system strength rather than a demographic artifact (Urban Institute, 2025).
11IndianaMidwest89.6
Among the fastest-rising states in the 2024 data, with fourth graders ranking sixth in the nation in reading, up from 19th in 2022 (ExcelinEd, 2025; NCES, 2024).
The receipts: Indiana's fourth graders ranked sixth in the nation in reading on the 2024 NAEP, up from 19th in 2022 and 17th in 2019, one of the largest positive moves of any state (ExcelinEd, 2025; NCES, 2024).
12IdahoMountain West88.9
Above the national average in math at both grade levels in 2024 (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Idaho scored above the national average in math at both fourth and eighth grade on the 2024 NAEP, holding up better than most states through the post-2019 period (NCES, 2024).
13VirginiaSouth Atlantic88.1
Above the national average in math in 2024, but its fourth grade reading score has fallen sharply since 2017, one of the steeper declines in the country (NCES, NAEP long-term trend data).
The receipts: Virginia scored above the national average in math in 2024, but its fourth grade reading score has fallen sharply since 2017, one of the steeper state reading declines in the country and a drag on its composite (NCES, NAEP trend data).
14NebraskaMidwest87.4
Above the national average in math at both grades in 2024, but its fourth grade reading score fell 10 points between 2019 and 2024, among the largest reading losses of any state (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Nebraska scored above the national average in math at both grades in 2024, but its fourth grade reading score fell 10 points from 2019 to 2024, among the largest reading losses recorded by any state (NCES, 2024).
15WashingtonPacific Northwest86.8
At or above the national average on most of the four 2024 assessments, with the same post-2019 erosion in reading that shows up almost everywhere (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Washington scored at or above the national average on most of the four 2024 assessments, with the same post-2019 reading erosion visible in nearly every state (NCES, 2024).
16IowaMidwest85.9
At or near the national average across the 2024 assessments, with a graduation rate among the highest in the nation (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR).
The receipts: Iowa performed at or near the national average across the 2024 NAEP assessments and carries one of the highest four-year graduation rates in the country (NCES, 2024).
17PennsylvaniaNortheast85.1
Near or slightly above the national average on the 2024 assessments, with strong performance concentrated in its suburban districts (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Pennsylvania scored near or slightly above the national average on the 2024 NAEP, though wide gaps persist between its suburban and urban districts (NCES, 2024).
18MontanaMountain West84.4
Its eighth graders scored above the national average in both reading and math on the 2024 assessment (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Montana's eighth graders scored above the national average in both reading and math on the 2024 NAEP (NCES, 2024).
19FloridaSoutheast83.7
Near the national average across the 2024 assessments, with fourth grade results holding up better than eighth grade (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Florida performed near the national average across the 2024 NAEP, with stronger relative results in fourth grade than in eighth grade (NCES, 2024).
20OhioMidwest83.0
At or near the national average on the 2024 assessments, with the near-universal post-2019 reading slippage (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Ohio scored at or near the national average on the 2024 NAEP assessments, sharing the broad post-2019 reading decline (NCES, 2024).
21North DakotaMidwest82.3
Near the national average in math with one of the higher graduation rates in the country (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR).
The receipts: North Dakota scored near the national average in math on the 2024 NAEP and posts an above-average four-year graduation rate (NCES, 2024).
22KentuckySouth81.6
Near the national average on the 2024 assessments, a stronger showing than several of its regional neighbors (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Kentucky performed near the national average on the 2024 NAEP, outpacing several neighboring southern states (NCES, 2024).
23TennesseeSouth80.9
Among the improving states, with fourth grade reading rising to 23rd nationally in 2024 from 35th in 2022 (NCES, NAEP 2024; Tennessee Department of Education, 2025).
The receipts: Tennessee's fourth grade reading rank rose to 23rd in 2024 from 35th in 2022 and 31st in 2019, one of the clearer improvement stories of the release (NCES, 2024; Tennessee Department of Education, 2025).
24MarylandSouth Atlantic80.1
Near the national average overall, with results dragged by post-2019 declines despite above-average per-pupil spending (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Maryland scored near the national average on the 2024 NAEP, with declines since 2019 that spending has not reversed (NCES, 2024).
25MissouriMidwest79.4
At or just below the national average across the 2024 assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Missouri performed at or just below the national average across the 2024 NAEP assessments (NCES, 2024).
26KansasMidwest78.7
Near the national average in math with reading results softening since 2019, consistent with the national pattern (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Kansas scored near the national average in math on the 2024 NAEP, with reading softening since 2019 in line with the national trend (NCES, 2024).
27Rhode IslandNortheast78.0
Near the national average, below its New England neighbors on the 2024 assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Rhode Island performed near the national average on the 2024 NAEP, trailing its higher-scoring New England neighbors (NCES, 2024).
28VermontNortheast77.3
Around the national average, with small samples adding uncertainty to its year-to-year movement (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Vermont scored around the national average on the 2024 NAEP, with a small student population that widens the uncertainty on its scores (NCES, 2024).
29GeorgiaSoutheast76.6
Near the national average, with fourth grade results outpacing eighth grade on the 2024 assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Georgia performed near the national average on the 2024 NAEP, with stronger fourth grade than eighth grade results (NCES, 2024).
30TexasSouth75.9
Around the national average in math but below it in reading on the 2024 assessments, in the nation's second-largest school system (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Texas scored around the national average in math and below it in reading on the 2024 NAEP, operating the nation's second-largest public school system (NCES, 2024).
31South DakotaMidwest75.1
Near the national average with an above-average graduation rate (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR).
The receipts: South Dakota scored near the national average on the 2024 NAEP with an above-average four-year graduation rate (NCES, 2024).
32MichiganMidwest74.3
Below the national average in reading, a persistent weakness the state has targeted with early-literacy legislation (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Michigan scored below the national average in reading on the 2024 NAEP, a long-running weakness that prompted its early-literacy retention law (NCES, 2024).
33MaineNortheast73.6
Around or slightly below the national average, with post-2019 reading declines steeper than its New England peers (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Maine scored around or slightly below the national average on the 2024 NAEP, with sharper post-2019 reading declines than its New England neighbors (NCES, 2024).
34North CarolinaSoutheast72.9
Below the national average in reading with math nearer the average on the 2024 assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: North Carolina scored below the national average in reading and nearer the average in math on the 2024 NAEP (NCES, 2024).
35MississippiSouth; see adjusted-ranking note72.2
Ranks in the national middle in raw fourth grade reading after a decade of phonics-based reforms, and at or near the top once demographics are accounted for (NCES, NAEP 2024; Urban Institute, 2025; Mississippi First, 2025).
The receipts: Mississippi now performs in the national middle in raw fourth grade reading and at or near the top on demographically adjusted rankings, the payoff of a decade of mandated phonics instruction, the clearest reform success in the dataset (Urban Institute, 2025; Mississippi First, 2025).
36South CarolinaSouth71.4
Below the national average across the 2024 assessments, with fourth grade math the relative bright spot (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: South Carolina scored below the national average across the 2024 NAEP, with fourth grade math its strongest relative result (NCES, 2024).
37OregonPacific Northwest70.7
Below the national average on most of the 2024 assessments after steep post-2019 declines (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Oregon scored below the national average on most of the 2024 NAEP assessments following steep declines since 2019 (NCES, 2024).
38HawaiiPacific69.9
Below the national average in raw scores, but a strong performer once its student demographics are accounted for (NCES, NAEP 2024; Urban Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Hawaii scored below the national average in raw 2024 NAEP results but ranks considerably higher once demographics are accounted for (NCES, 2024; Urban Institute, 2025).
39New YorkNortheast69.2
Below the national average in math at both grades in 2024, 37 percent of fourth graders and 26 percent of eighth graders proficient against national figures of 40 and 28, with reading closer to the national line (NCES, NAEP 2024; NYSSBA, 2025).
The receipts: New York scored below the national average in math at both grades on the 2024 NAEP, 37 percent of fourth graders proficient versus 40 percent nationally and 26 percent of eighth graders versus 28 percent, while its reading results sat closer to the national average (NCES, 2024; NYSSBA, 2025).
40ArkansasSouth68.4
Below the national average across the 2024 NAEP assessments, with reading among the weaker tier of states (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Arkansas scored below the national average across the 2024 NAEP assessments, with reading among the weaker performing states (NCES, 2024).
41CaliforniaPacific58.9
Below the national average on all four 2024 NAEP assessments despite operating the nation's largest public school system (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: California scored below the national average on all four 2024 NAEP assessments while operating the largest public school system in the country, a scale challenge but not an excuse the composite adjusts for (NCES, 2024).
42LouisianaSouth57.7
The record is split, and both halves are cited. Louisiana was the standout in early reading, the rare state to fully recover its fourth grade reading score after the pandemic, but it still ranked 42nd in eighth grade math in 2024 (NCES; Learning Policy Institute, 2025).
The receipts: Louisiana was the standout early-reading state, the rare one to fully recover its fourth grade reading score after the pandemic and ranking 15th in fourth grade reading, yet it still ranked 42nd in eighth grade math in 2024, so its composite splits the difference (NCES, 2024; ExcelinEd, 2025).
43DelawareSouth Atlantic56.5
Posted some of the nation's largest score declines between 2019 and 2024 across the NAEP assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024 trend data).
The receipts: Delaware recorded some of the nation's largest score declines from 2019 to 2024 across the NAEP assessments (NCES, 2024 trend data).
44ArizonaSouthwest55.8
Below the national average on the 2024 assessments and among the states with the lowest four-year graduation rates (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR).
The receipts: Arizona scored below the national average on the 2024 NAEP and posts one of the lowest four-year graduation rates in the country (NCES, 2024).
45NevadaMountain West54.9
Below the national average across the 2024 NAEP assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Nevada scored below the national average across all four 2024 NAEP assessments and carries among the lowest graduation rates of any state (NCES, 2024).
46AlabamaSouth54.0
Ranked 48th in eighth grade math and 45th in eighth grade reading in 2024, even after well-publicized gains in fourth grade math earlier in the decade (Learning Policy Institute analysis of NCES data, 2025).
The receipts: Alabama ranked 48th in eighth grade math and 45th in eighth grade reading in 2024, even after publicized fourth grade math gains earlier in the decade, showing the improvement did not carry into the upper grades (Learning Policy Institute, 2025).
47OklahomaSouth53.1
Below the national average on all four 2024 assessments, with reading scores among the lowest tier of states (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Oklahoma scored below the national average on all four 2024 NAEP assessments, with reading among the lowest tier of states (NCES, 2024).
48West VirginiaSouth52.0
At or near the bottom of the state rankings on all four 2024 NAEP assessments (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: West Virginia scored at or near the bottom of the state table on all four 2024 NAEP assessments (NCES, 2024).
49AlaskaPacific50.6
Among the lowest fourth grade reading scores in the nation in 2024 (NCES, NAEP 2024).
The receipts: Alaska posted among the lowest fourth grade reading scores in the nation on the 2024 NAEP and one of the lower graduation rates of any state (NCES, 2024).
50New MexicoSouthwest48.7
The lowest proficiency rate recorded on the 2024 assessment: 14 percent of eighth graders at or above NAEP Proficient in math, the bottom of all states. Its graduation rate also runs roughly ten points below the national average (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR).
The receipts: New Mexico recorded the lowest proficiency rate on the 2024 NAEP, 14 percent of eighth graders at or above Proficient in math, and a graduation rate roughly ten points below the national average, placing it last on the composite (NCES, 2024).
Click any entry to open its full scorecard, sub-scores, and the receipts.
Percent at or above NAEP Proficient, selected results
What the 2024 Nation's Report Card actually measured
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the only test given to representative samples of students in every state under identical conditions. States cannot lower its bar. That is why this ranking leans on it. The 2024 results, released in January 2025, were bleak at the national level. Reading fell again: 31 percent of the nation's fourth graders scored proficient or better, down two points from 2022 and four points from 2019. Math recovered slightly, with 39 percent of fourth graders proficient, up four points from 2022 (NCES, NAEP 2024; NAGB, 2025).
Underneath the national averages, the spread between states is enormous. Fourth grade math proficiency ranged from the low twenties to the low fifties across participating jurisdictions. Massachusetts fourth graders posted a 246 in math and a 225 in reading, the top scores in the country. New Mexico eighth graders posted a 14 percent math proficiency rate, the lowest (NCES, 2024). A fourth grader's odds of being on grade level depend heavily on which side of a state line the family lives, a gap that persisted through the pandemic and the recovery alike.
The reading crisis is the story the numbers keep telling
If there is one finding that unifies the 2024 data across nearly every state, it is that American children are reading worse than they did five years ago. National fourth grade reading proficiency fell to 31 percent in 2024, down from 33 percent in 2022 and 35 percent in 2019, and the decline was broad: most states lost ground, and the losses were concentrated among the lowest-performing students, widening the gap between struggling and strong readers (NCES, 2024; NAGB, 2025). Math told a gentler story, with fourth grade math recovering four points from its 2022 low, but even there the gains were driven by higher-performing students while the bottom stayed flat.
The reading decline is not evenly distributed, and that unevenness is the most actionable finding in the dataset. Nebraska lost 10 points in fourth grade reading from 2019, Virginia posted one of the steeper multi-year declines, and Delaware slid across the board (NCES, 2024 trend data). Against that backdrop, the handful of states that held steady or improved stand out sharply. Wyoming kept its scores flat while the nation fell. Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana actively gained. The common thread among the gainers is not spending or demographics but instruction: each rebuilt early reading around phonics and structured literacy, and each has the NAEP movement to show for it. The reading crisis is real, but it is not fate, and the states that treated it as a solvable problem produced the receipts.
The Massachusetts ceiling has held for two decades
Massachusetts has been the top-scoring state in both fourth and eighth grade reading and math for more than twenty years, and 2024 extended the streak: the highest numeric score of any state on all four assessments (Mass.gov, 2025; Urban Institute, 2025). The framework pays no attention to why. But the record shows the lead survived a pandemic, curriculum wars, and multiple governors of both parties. Whatever is producing it is durable, and it is not reducible to any single administration or party.
The rest of the top ten is a mix that will not satisfy anyone's political priors. Deep-blue New Jersey and Connecticut sit beside deep-red Utah and Wyoming. Utah reaches the top five in eighth grade math while spending less per pupil than almost any state (Learning Policy Institute, 2025). Wyoming held its scores steady through a period when most states lost ground. Indiana, meanwhile, vaulted its fourth graders to sixth in the nation in reading, up from 19th just two years earlier (ExcelinEd, 2025). If that pattern produces discomfort, the discomfort belongs to the reader, not the data.
The crowded middle is where most states actually live
The most honest thing a full ranking can show is how many states cluster near the national average. Roughly two dozen states, from Iowa and Pennsylvania down through Georgia, Texas, and Michigan, sit within a narrow band around the middle, and their exact ordering shifts depending on which of the four assessments carries the most weight. Iowa and North Dakota pair average test scores with among the highest graduation rates in the country. Texas scores around the average in math but below it in reading in the nation's second-largest system, and New York, anchored by the nation's largest city, scores below the national average in math at both grades while its reading sits closer to the line (NCES, 2024; NYSSBA, 2025).
This is why the report presents the composite as an ordering, not a measurement, and flags the middle tier as the softest part of it. A state ranked 25th and a state ranked 32nd are, in test-score terms, close to indistinguishable, often separated by a scale-score point or two that falls inside the assessment's own margin of error. The extremes are where the data speaks loudly: Massachusetts and the northeastern-mountain top tier at one end, New Mexico and the deep-South-plus-Alaska bottom tier at the other. The middle is a reminder that most American school systems are, statistically, ordinary, and that the political energy spent arguing over which average state is slightly better than another average state is spent on differences the test cannot reliably detect.
The middle also contains the states doing the most interesting policy work. Tennessee and Indiana both climbed out of the lower-middle band on the strength of reading reforms, and both are worth watching in the next NAEP cycle to see whether the gains hold as those cohorts age into the eighth grade assessments. A state's position in a single year matters less than its trajectory across cycles, which is why the movement section of this report tracks direction, not just level.
The southern reading reforms show up in the numbers
The most important movement in the 2024 data came from states that rewrote how reading is taught. Louisiana was the standout: the rare state to fully recover its fourth grade reading score to pre-pandemic levels, ranking 15th nationally in fourth grade reading after mandating phonics-based instruction and retraining its teacher corps (NCES; ExcelinEd, 2025). Mississippi, long a national punchline, now performs near the middle of the pack in raw fourth grade reading and at or near the top once demographics are accounted for (Urban Institute, 2025; Mississippi First, 2025). Tennessee's fourth grade reading rank climbed to 23rd from 35th in two years (Tennessee Department of Education, 2025).
The adjusted rankings deserve a plain-language explanation. The Urban Institute re-ranks states as if they all served identical student populations. On that basis, several southern states vault into the top ten, and several wealthy states fall hard. This ranking uses raw scores, because a diploma is earned in the world as it is. But both lists agree on one thing: five states, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, make the eighth grade reading top ten either way (Urban Institute, 2025). Those results are not demographic accidents.
Graduation rates tell a gentler story than the tests do
The national four-year graduation rate reached 87.4 percent in 2022-23, up from 80 percent in 2011-12 (NCES). Set that next to the test data: 87 percent of students receive diplomas while 31 percent of fourth graders read proficiently. Both numbers are real. Together they say that a diploma and a demonstrated skill are not the same measurement, which is exactly why this ranking weights the tests far more heavily than the completion rate. A rising graduation rate paired with a falling reading score is one of the central tensions in American education, and this data shows it in both columns.
The composite also ignores everything states say about their own standards. Many states report proficiency rates on their own tests that are double what NAEP finds, a standards gap documented repeatedly by outside reviewers (FutureEd, 2025). Only actions matter, and in education the action that can be measured identically everywhere is a student sitting for the same federal test. That is the ruler used here, applied to all 50 states the same way.
The standards gap deserves emphasis because it is where parents are most often misled. A state can tell its families that 70 percent of their fourth graders are proficient readers on the state test while NAEP finds the real figure closer to 35 percent, because the state simply set a lower bar for what proficient means (FutureEd, 2025). This is not an accident of methodology; it is a policy choice that makes a school system look better than it performs. NAEP exists precisely to be the check on that incentive, and it is why this ranking anchors on the federal test rather than on any state's self-report. When a state's own numbers and its NAEP numbers diverge sharply, the divergence itself is a finding, and it tends to be largest in exactly the lower-tier states that have the most reason to flatter their own results.
The raw-versus-adjusted debate, explained plainly
No dispute matters more to how a reader should interpret this table than the choice between raw and demographically adjusted scores, so it deserves a full plain-language treatment. Raw scores report exactly what students scored, full stop. The Urban Institute's demographically adjusted scores ask a different question: how would each state rank if every state served an identical mix of students by income, race, English-learner status, and disability? On that adjusted basis, several southern states with challenging demographics vault toward the top, and several wealthy northeastern and midwestern states fall, because their raw advantage partly reflects who their students are rather than how well their schools teach (Urban Institute, 2025).
Both questions are legitimate and they answer different things. The adjusted view is the fairer measure of school effectiveness; the raw view is the truer measure of what a child in that state actually knows walking out the door. This ranking uses raw scores because a diploma and a job are earned in the world as it is, not in a demographically neutralized model of it. But the report names the adjusted rankings at every turn, because a state like Mississippi that looks middling on raw scores and excellent on adjusted scores is telling the reader something real: its schools are producing more learning per unit of advantage than almost anyone, even if its absolute scores still trail. Readers who care most about school quality should weight the adjusted numbers; readers who care most about student outcomes should weight the raw ones.
What the ranking deliberately ignores
This composite does not count dollars, teacher pay, class size, or policy announcements. It counts what students demonstrably know, as measured by the one test given identically everywhere, checked against whether they finish. Utah reaches the top ten while spending near the bottom per pupil; several high-spending states sit in the middle or below (Learning Policy Institute, 2025; NCES). Spending and outcomes are related, but the relationship is loose enough that a spending ranking and an outcomes ranking are different documents. New York, one of the highest-spending states in the country, scores below the national average in math, which is not an argument against spending so much as a caution that dollars alone do not guarantee the result (NYSSBA, 2025).
The deepest limitation is that a state average blends very different districts. A wealthy suburb and a struggling urban core sit inside the same state number, and neither family's actual school looks like the average. The ranking is useful for comparing whole state systems and for cutting through the gap between what states claim and what the federal test finds. It is not a verdict on any individual school, and it does not pretend to be one. Used correctly, it is a tool for two things: seeing which state systems produce the strongest measured outcomes, and catching the states whose own proficiency claims diverge most sharply from the one federal test that cannot be gamed.
Massachusetts vs. the nation, 2024 average scale scores
How the education map has moved since 2019
The defining trend of the 2024 Nation's Report Card is a national decline that hit reading hardest. Fourth grade reading scores fell two points from 2022 and four from 2019, extending a slide that predates the pandemic, while fourth grade math partially recovered, up four points from 2022 but still below 2019 (NCES, 2024; NAGB, 2025). The pandemic accelerated a reading problem that was already visible in the 2019 data, and by 2024 only a handful of states had climbed back to their pre-pandemic reading levels.
The states that moved up did so on deliberate policy, not luck. Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana all rewrote early-reading instruction around phonics and structured literacy, and all four posted among the largest positive moves in fourth grade reading in the release: Louisiana to 15th, Indiana to 6th, Tennessee to 23rd (ExcelinEd, 2025; NCES, 2024; Tennessee Department of Education, 2025). These are the clearest cases in the dataset of policy showing up in outcomes within a few years.
At the other end, several states that once scored well slipped. Virginia and Nebraska both recorded steep fourth grade reading declines, Nebraska losing 10 points from 2019, and Delaware posted some of the largest across-the-board declines of any state (NCES, 2024 trend data). The Massachusetts lead, by contrast, held through the entire period, the single most stable feature of the state-level data across more than two decades of NAEP administrations.
Change in national fourth grade NAEP scores, 2019 to 2024
What the evidence settles
The evidence settles that state-level differences in K-12 outcomes are large, persistent, and not reducible to party control. Massachusetts has led all four NAEP assessments for two decades, New Mexico has trailed for years, and states of both political colors appear at both ends. It is also settled that national reading performance declined again in 2024 while fourth grade math partially recovered, and that early-reading reforms in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana produced measurable NAEP gains (NCES, NAEP 2024; ExcelinEd, 2025).
What remains contested
What remains contested is how much of the gap reflects schools versus demographics, and whether raw or demographically adjusted scores are the fairer yardstick. Adjusted analyses by the Urban Institute move Mississippi and other southern reform states near the top and drop some wealthy states sharply; raw scores reverse much of that. Both methods are defensible, they answer different questions, and readers should know which one any ranking, including this one, is using. The exact ordering of the crowded middle tier is also legitimately soft.
Questions people ask
Which state has the best K-12 education outcomes?
Massachusetts. It posted the highest score of any state on all four 2024 NAEP assessments, including 246 in fourth grade math and 225 in fourth grade reading, and it has led the Nation's Report Card for more than two decades (NCES, 2024).
Which state ranks last in education outcomes?
New Mexico, on this composite. Only 14 percent of its eighth graders scored proficient in math on the 2024 NAEP, the lowest rate of any state, and its graduation rate runs roughly ten points below the national average (NCES).
Do red states or blue states have better schools?
Neither, as a category. The 2024 top ten includes blue New Jersey and Connecticut alongside red Utah and Wyoming, and the bottom ten includes states of both colors. On demographically adjusted scores, several southern red states rank near the top, while raw scores favor wealthier northeastern states. Party control does not predict the test data.
Why use NAEP instead of state test scores?
Because NAEP is the only assessment given to representative samples in every state with the same questions and the same scoring. State tests vary in difficulty, and many states report proficiency rates roughly double what NAEP finds for the same students (FutureEd, 2025).
Which states improved the most in 2024?
Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi. All four rewrote early-reading instruction around phonics and posted among the largest gains in fourth grade reading: Louisiana rose to 15th nationally, Indiana to 6th, and Tennessee to 23rd (NCES, 2024; ExcelinEd, 2025).
Is American education getting better or worse?
Mixed. Fourth grade math partially recovered in 2024, up four points from 2022, but reading fell again to 31 percent proficiency, down from 35 percent in 2019, extending a slide that began before the pandemic. Graduation rates, by contrast, reached a record 87.4 percent (NCES, 2024).
Sources
- NCES, 2024 NAEP Mathematics Assessment: Results at Grades 4 and 8 for the Nation, States, and Districts, 2025 https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/statistical-analysis-report/2024-naep-mathematics-assessment-results-grades-4-and-8-nation-states-and-districts
- NCES, 2024 NAEP Reading Assessment: Results at Grades 4 and 8 for the Nation, States, and Districts, 2025 https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/statistical-analysis-report/2024-naep-reading-assessment-results-grades-4-and-8-nation-states-and-districts
- The Nation's Report Card, Explore Results for the 2024 NAEP Mathematics Assessment https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/
- Mass.gov, Massachusetts Ranks #1 in National Education Assessment, 2025 https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-ranks-1-in-national-education-assessment
- Urban Institute, States' Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 NAEP, 2025 https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment
- Learning Policy Institute, Improving Student Achievement: What Red and Blue States Are Doing Right, 2025 https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/improving-student-achievement-what-red-and-blue-states-are-doing-right
- ExcelinEd, Policy Lessons from States That Improved Students' Reading and Math Proficiency, 2025 https://excelined.org/2025/03/04/policy-lessons-from-states-that-improved-students-reading-and-math-proficiency/
- National Assessment Governing Board, 10 Takeaways from the 2024 NAEP Results, 2025 https://www.nagb.gov/powered-by-naep/the-2024-nations-report-card/10-takeaways-from-2024-naep-results.html
- NCES, Condition of Education: High School Graduation Rates (ACGR) https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/coi/high-school-graduation-rates
- FutureEd, The New NAEP Scores Highlight a Standards Gap in Many States, 2025 https://www.future-ed.org/the-new-naep-scores-highlight-a-standards-gap-in-many-states/
- Tennessee Department of Education, 2024 NAEP Tennessee Results Overview https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/documents/2024_NAEP_TN_Results_Overview.pdf
Parker, T. E. (2026). States Ranked by K-12 Education Outcomes. US Political Rank. https://uspoliticalrank.com/rankings/states-by-education-outcomes<iframe src="https://uspoliticalrank.com/embed/states-by-education-outcomes" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:8px" title="States Ranked by K-12 Education Outcomes" loading="lazy"></iframe>Keep reading
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