On November 9th, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress, together with Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, released the report, Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Innovation. This report is a follow up to their 2007 report card that graded states on school performance.
This new report examines how states are creating the systems and opportunities necessary for educators and reformers to deliver schooling equal to the 21st century's challenges and demands. This report defines innovation as leveraging new tools, talent, and management strategies to craft smart solutions. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. were evaluated in eight areas:
- School Management (including the strength of charter school laws)
- Finance (including state financial data accessibility)
- Staffing: Hiring & Evaluation (including alternative certification for teachers)
- Staffing: Removing Ineffective Teachers (including the percentage of principals who report barriers to the removal of poor-performing teachers)
- Data (including such measures as state-collected college student remediation data)
- Technology (including students per Internet-connected computer)
- Pipeline to Postsecondary (including the percentage of schools reporting dual-enrollment programs)
- State Reform Environment (an ungraded category that includes data on the presence of reform groups and participation in international assessments)
Their aim in sharing the report is to encourage states to embrace policies that make it easier to solve persistent challenges. For more information, visit the interactive website that accompanies the report at www.uschamber.com/reportcard. To see the report in its entirety, go to: www.uschamber.com/icw.
