84% of States Fail to Provide Students an Opportunity to Learn

Schott Foundation Index Finds only Eight of 50 States Providing Disadvantaged
Students Equitable Access to Even Moderately Proficient Public Education
Systems

BOSTON, May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With national and state policymakers
focused on student achievement and school innovation, a new analysis of
state-collected education data reveals that 84 percent of states fail to
provide students access to a moderately proficient public education system.
Moreover, as the nation celebrates the 55th anniversary of the landmark Brown
v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision, the study shows minority
and low-income students have only half the opportunity to learn in our public
schools as their White non-Latino peers.

The data was summarized in Lost Opportunity: A 50-State Report on the
Opportunity to Learn in America, a state-by-state study released today by the
Schott Foundation for Public Education. The study analyzed student
performance data reported by state departments of education to determine both
the quality of and access to instruction provided in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia.

"This serves as a wake-up call to every governor, legislature, state education
commissioner, and schools superintendent that falsely believes we are getting
the job done in our classrooms," said Dr. John Jackson, President and CEO of
the Schott Foundation. "According to their own data, only eight states are
providing a moderately proficient, high-access public education to all. After
a decade of leaving no child behind, we are finding an entire generation of
students is again all but forgotten."

The Schott Foundation provided a state-by-state comparison of both academic
proficiency (percentage of students scoring at or above proficient on eighth
grade NAEP reading measures) and access (as measured by the Schott
Foundation's Opportunity to Learn Index, or OTLI). Idaho, Maine, Minnesota,
New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Virginia were the only states
identified as providing both a moderate-proficiency and high-access education
for all students.

Rounding out the bottom, eight states - Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan,
Missouri, Nevada, Rhode Island, Texas, and West Virginia, along with the
District of Columbia - appear to provide low-proficiency and low-access
education, according to their own data.

"To raise student performance and close the achievement gap, we must first
address the growing opportunity gap," Jackson said. "In far too many states,
students are being denied access to the resources that provide a meaningful
opportunity to learn. There is no substitute for opportunity, not in our
schools, not in our workplaces, and not in our society. That is our American
dream. No one should be satisfied with the level of educational quality and
access we are providing to our children. This data defines a community in
crisis, not one of achievement for all."

Sixteen states were found to provide a moderately proficient education for
most students but demonstrated low access when providing that education to
historically disadvantaged students. These states included: Connecticut,
Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New
Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Wisconsin,
and Wyoming.

Seventeen states were found to provide high-access, but low-proficiency
education to their students. These states included: Alabama, Alaska,
California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and
Tennessee, and Utah.

The state-by-state data, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and income, can be
found at www.otlstatereport.org.

"Over the past decade, we have declared that data is king in education
improvement," Jackson said. "The state data is clear. If you are a Black,
Latino, Native American, or low-income student in this country, odds are you
are not receiving high-quality learning opportunities. After more than a half
century, we are still not providing truly equal educational opportunities to
all students. After more than a quarter century, our nation is still very
much at risk. Quality for a few and access for some is hardly the standard to
which we should hold our states and school districts."

Delving deeper into the state-provided data, only six states offer Black
students a relatively equal opportunity to learn, compared to their White,
non-Latino peers. Eighty percent of states fail to offer Latino students a
fairly good opportunity to learn, while nearly 80 percent of states fail to
offer low-income students a strong opportunity to learn. Low-income students
have the highest opportunity learn in those states with low minority
populations.

The report highlights the educational and economic effects of that gap.
California and New York each account for 15 percent of the nation's nearly $60
billion annual economic burden attributable to opportunity to learn
inequities. Texas accounts for an additional 12 percent. The next three
states -- Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- account for 5 percent each.
New York's share of the economic effect of inequity is nearly three times its
percentage of the national population.

"We are far behind as a nation; proficiency should not be the benchmark but as
the President has stated, increasing college degree attainment is the goal.
Yet, in the 21st century, states are failing to provide students access to the
resources needed to even meet the lower, 'proficient' standard which is unfair
and against our national interest," Jackson stated.

About The Schott Foundation
Founded in 1991, The Schott Foundation for Public Education seeks to develop
and strengthen a broad-based and representative movement to achieve fully
resourced, high-quality preK-12 public education.

SOURCE The Schott Foundation for Public Education

Jessica Schwartz Hahn, +1-703-478-0658 (w), +1-571-239-3260 (c),
jessica@peithocom.com, for The Schott Foundation for Public Education