USA Today – Samuel Stebbins
“The Common Core State Standards Initiative, implemented during the Obama administration, established a uniform set of expectations for American public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Still, the authority to establish budgets, standards, and curriculums for public school students falls largely to state governments – and partially as a result, education outcomes vary considerably across the country. 24/7 Wall St. created an index, inspired by the Quality Counts ranking of state education created by independent news journal Education Week, to identify the states with the best and worst schools. States were ranked from best performing down to worst on a variety of measures covering school funding, academic achievement, and enrollment.” (more)