re: Mississippi has the top 4th and 8th grade test scores in the nation

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The blue line tells the true tale.

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Not really. We all know some people just aren't teachable. Some states have a lot more of them than others.

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As someone who works in a school district in mississippi (not a teacher) i can tell you EXACTLY what it is...

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by oleyeller

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Based on the rest of your post after what I quoted, I can only assume you are a custodian

So I was involved in a small role in helping implement the change in Mississippi.This data is adjusted for demographics, but in real world, MS went from 49th to 23rd.

Without going into the weeds, here is what Mississippi did.

1. Focus on the science of reading. There were a significant number of kids graduating high school that could not read. That had to change. So the focus of 1st-3rd grade is 90% reading. Kids are taught math by reading. Kids are taught science by reading. You have to make sure they can read.

2. We implemented the controversial "reading gate" in 3rd grade. Protests, social media campaigns, and straight shenanigans against this but we held firm. If you don't read at grade level in third grade, you don't go to fourth grade. Students get multiple chances, but its a zero tolerance issue. If you don't pass that test, you don't advance. The first year something like 15% of kids were held back. Now its less than 5%.

3. This was extremely successful. The first graduating class that went through this showed great improvement in test scores throughout school. Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up.

4. Mississippi has declared that it is now open for business. We just signed into law a plan to get rid of the income tax and we were just named one of the top states for economic investment. What used to be a hinderance in companies locating here (education) is no longer there.

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Mississippi has the top 4th and 8th grade test scores in the nation

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I mean based on the data this statement is obviously untrue, but I’m sure whatever adjustment criteria was applied to MS and LA that has them at the top of the list was also applied equally to the rest of the states. Gender studies obviously not paying off for kids. Oregon being full of higher earning, mostly white demographics id assume has some of the lowest actual scores in the country and that’s before adjusting for demographics which brings their adjusted score way down to 50th. conceited liberal dumbasses

I would put money on there being more cheating going on in Mississippi then there was in the 2020 election.

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Adjusting for race?

I am pretty sure I know the answer, but how, exactly, do you adjust test scores for race?

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I'm guessing that they have a formula where it compares the scores for each race in an individual state against the national averages for each race.

So they lowered the bar to Mississippi & Louisiana because we have such a higher % of minorities. Look at the unadjusted blue line, we're still way back of most states when you grade everyone the same.

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Regardless, it’s a true credit to the state and their educators for showing that the baselines can be moved and that it is possible to break out of generational poverty and poor academic outcomes with the right plan.

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Meanwhile, in Louisiana, we continue to bang our heads against the wall and hope it works.

What we need it more data analysts and more standardized testing.

Here is your best explanation of why you need "adjusted" scores.

Article

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Student heterogeneity is precisely why traditional state education rankings can be so misleading. Small, largely white states in New England, such as Maine and Vermont, do very well in these rankings, but that status merely reflects their small black and Hispanic populations. This is starkly illustrated by comparing Texas and Iowa.

According to U.S. News and World Report, Texas, which ranks 33rd, is far surpassed in educational quality by Iowa, which ranks eighth. When only the test scores are examined at an aggregate level, the ranks shift somewhat but their relative positions don't: Texas moves to 35th and Iowa to 17th. But when we disaggregate student performance scores by racial categories (white, black, Hispanic, and Asian), the rankings change dramatically. By looking at test scores for students in fourth and eighth grade in math, reading, and science, and by separating students by racial category, we get 24 different possible bases of comparison. This allows us to measure how well states do for each specific student type—Asian fourth-grade math students, for instance. (We have adjusted our rankings to compensate for the fact that not all states report scores for every student group.)

Giving each type equal weight, Texas comes in fifth and Iowa 31st—a remarkable reversal. Iowa, it turns out, falls so far because it does a below-average job of educating white students (30th in the country), black students (36th), and Asian students (40th), although it is slightly above average with Hispanic students (20th). Because Iowa has a disproportionately large share of white students, who as a group score higher than blacks and Hispanics, rankings that use aggregated test scores place Iowa's education system as above average and superior to that of Texas. Yet Texas students score higher than Iowa students in all but one of the 20 possible bases of comparison between these two states.

Think about that: White students do better in Texas than in Iowa. Black students do better in Texas. Hispanic students do better in Texas. Asian students do better in Texas. Given these facts, it is absurd for U.S. News to rank Iowa higher than Texas in terms of educational performance. And this example is no fluke. Many other state comparisons similarly reverse if you account for student heterogeneity. Taken together, these methodological problems should disqualify mainstream rankings from use in our national discourse.

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This only takes race into account. You could take it a step farther by looking at socioeconomic status. For example, a middle class black kid in Zachary (which is now majority-minority) will almost always have better educational opportunities than a poor black kid in Glen Oaks. The same can be said for an urban white kid in Massachusetts vs a white kid in a West Virginia holler.

When there is a chart with Mississippi or Louisiana towards the top, I will get curious and look to see what it is about. When I see them #1 & #2, I immediately realize