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Statistics tell only part of the story about what states are doing to improve public education and raise student achievement. We also wanted to provide a broader context in which those statistics could be interpreted.

Summaries of reform activity in each state, written by current and former Education Week reporters, are on the following pages. They are based, in part, on a questionnaire that Education Week distributed to as many as 50 people in each state, including teachers and administrators, business and civic leaders, state education officials, and education school deans. Reporters also interviewed people in each state, pored over state report cards and other documents, and used statistical data that was gathered for this report. The information is current as of this past Dec. 1.

A report card accompanies each state summary, listing the state鈥檚 grades on our indicators of quality.

We also have included a bar graph of how each state鈥檚 students performed on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress by race and ethnicity.

Finally, we include 鈥渧ital statistics鈥� on each state. The U.S. Bureau of the Census provided figures about a state鈥檚 population in 1995, and the percent of children in poverty and single parent families in 1993. The National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education provided the rest of the data, which are current as of 1995, except for geographic breakdowns, which are current to 1994. (Annual K-12 expenditures are estimates for school year 1994-95, published last spring.) The percent of students with disabilities was provided by the department鈥檚 office of special education and rehabilitative services and is current as of 1995. All percentages may not add to 100 because of rounding.