Mega-States: an analysis of the performance of pupils in the five most populated States in the Nation

Description: California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas register nearly 40% students of schools public s of the nation. The importance of these mega-States goes beyond the size of their population. They have more than half of the nation now serve English language learners (ELL), as well as some of the largest concentrations of children from families with low incomes. As policy makers and educators look the nation s demographic changes and explore ways of bridging the achievement gap, the progress of the education of the children in these States are interesting well beyond their national borders. That s why the National Center for statistics education and the National Commission for the evaluation focused this special report on academic performance in the five largest States.

Mega-States are generally not higher than the nation, but they have made gains over time. The most recent NAEP results reveal certain achievements and challenges in the mega-States. They include the following: California scored lower than the nation in reading, mathematics and science.Florida scored higher than the nation in reading grades 4, but lower in grade 8 Mathematics and science.Illinois scored higher than the nation in the 8th grade reading, but lower in science.New York scored higher than the nation in reading of grade 4, but lower in mathematics in grade and 8th grade mathematics and science.Texas scored higher than the nation in 8th grade Math and science and lowest in reading.

The report includes more information about the performance of different groups of students in these assessments and focuses on earnings over time. In many cases, students in the mega-States have made significant gains or compete with the nation in the percentage of students at level competent realization.

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