Missouri's Quality Counts Score 2020
Quality Counts 2020: What’s it Measuring and What Does it Mean?
By: Evan Rhinesmith, Ph.D.
Education Week (EdWeek) has released its annual Quality Counts report, grading each state and the nation on educational performance and opportunities as measured by school finance, K-12 achievement, and EdWeek’s own Chance-for-Success Index. The first Quality Counts Reports was published in 1997 but has changed quite a bit over the last two decades. Starting in 2018, EdWeek split the publication into three installments that each focus on separate measures of education and educational opportunity in each state. The first installment looks at the Chance for Success and is what we focus on here.
Missouri earned a C+ grade in 2020 and ranked 26th overall. This is the same grade Missouri received in 2019, but our ranking did improve 3 places. Missouri slightly outpaced the nation in the average percentage of total points earned (79.4 versus 79.2) but had the same letter-grade. Compared to our neighbors, we outpaced, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. However, we trailed Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
Quality Counts 2020 Grades (source: EdWeek)
What is the Chance for Success Index?
As EdWeek describes, the Index is “a snapshot of a person’s prospect of successful outcomes over a lifetime, from early childhood to adulthood and the working world.” Grades are based on available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, NAEP scores, the U.S. Department of Education, and a few other unnamed data sources. These data are used to create 13 indicators split across the categories of Early Foundations, School Years, and Adult Outcomes as described in Table 1.
Source: EdWeek
The Good and the Bad for Missouri, According to EdWeek
Missouri is outperforming the national average in only one of the categories: Early Foundations. This result is surely driven by the “Linguistic Integration” indicator, where Missouri ranks 9th out of the 50 states and DC.
Some of these indicators appear related to one another and show how educational attainment can impact the next generation as much as the current. For example, the percentage of adults with an annual income above the national median and children in households with income above the poverty level are closely related. Therefore, Missouri ranking 34th and 30th in these two categories respectively should not come as a surprise. Also, the income results are closely linked to the low percentage of adults with a postsecondary degree. A recent report from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University shows that two out of three jobs now demand at least some education and training beyond high school. Given that we sit at 34th in the percentage of adults ages 18 to 24 who enroll in or have recently completed a postsecondary credential, the adult educational attainment outcome and annual income results are likely not going to change anytime soon.
Early Foundations:
Good: Missouri ranks 9th nationally in the percentage of children who live in households with fluent English speakers
School Years
Good: We are 13th nationally in the percent of students graduating on-time in the high school class of 2017
Less Good: Missouri ranks 27th in preschool enrollment and 29th in Kindergarten enrollment
Less Good: Missouri is 28th in percent of eighth-graders scoring proficient on the math section of the 2019 NAEP assessment and 31st in fourth-grade reading proficiency (You can read more about Missouri’s NAEP scores in our policy brief).
Adult Outcomes
Good: Missourian’s have steady employment, ranking 13th nationally in the percentage of adults holding full time, year-round jobs
Is Missouri Providing enough chances for success?
This report is EdWeek’s measure of quality and it provides an interesting look at state characteristics—and is a massive undertaking collecting these data on all 50 states—that are related to education. But we think there are a few issues that we should consider before we press any panic buttons about being middle-of-the-pack in quality. As researchers from the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas pointed out all the way back in 2009, the Chance for Success Index gives higher grades for having fewer disadvantaged families and students.
That being said, these measures do show areas where we as a state can improve, as well as showing how closely tied education policy is to other social issues. It also shows there is much we can learn from data that can be used to positively impact students and families.