Want better schools? It’s all up to states.
Education scholar Thomas Kane says that’s the lesson of recent ‘Southern surge’ in test scores
Southern states have historically underperformed in educational achievement. But a recent rise in test scores in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee has led some experts and journalists to describe the “Southern surge” as one of the few bright spots in U.S. education over the past several years.
According to the Education Recovery Scorecard, Alabama ranked first among states in math recovery and third in reading, Louisiana ranked second in math recovery and first in reading, Mississippi sixth in math recovery and fourth in reading, and Tennessee third in math recovery and ninth in reading.
The scorecard is a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College, to compare learning loss between 2019 and 2024.
In this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Thomas Kane, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, and the center’s faculty director, spoke about the lessons for other states.
Continue reading at news.harvard.edu