Dan McGowan has a short summary, on the WPRI Web site, of Education Week’s review of education among American states.  Rhode Island comes in as average, overall, at C+.  Education Week considers spending on schools to be a positive factor, and Rhode Island is seventh highest in the country by that measure, but actual student achievement (27th in the nation) dragged the Ocean State down.

One paragraph from McGowan, in particular, caught my eye:

Even though it has made some of the largest gains in the country on the math and reading sections of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam, Rhode Island earned a D+ for student achievement, in part because the state has some of the largest poverty-based achievement gaps in the country.

Compared with much of the nation, Rhode Island has, indeed, made slight gains on the NAEP, although the real story is that the national average has made even-slighter gains, setting a low bar for Dan’s claim of “some of the largest.”  Here’s some perspective: Averaging 4th and 8th grades and math and reading tests, from 2003 to 2013, the average state saw an increase of 6.3 points, reaching 245.  For Rhode Island, the gain was 8.8, to 244.  But other areas have done significantly better.  Washington, D.C., which began a high-profile school choice program in 2003 increased 21.5 points, to 237.  Other states that are often mentioned in conversations of school choice and reform outpaced Rhode Island significantly (like Florida and Indiana, for example).

I’m getting these numbers from a new online application on which the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is working that will soon be available for the public.