For those of you getting ready to place bets on who will win the third round of Race to the Top, take a look at the New America Foundation’s new analysis of states that are strong and weak in early education.
New America looked at things like whether states have kindergarten assessments, early learning standards, quality rating systems, early education data collection, and what early education funding levels have been.
Who comes out on top? Eleven states: Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont. (I’m not sure how thrilled Louisiana and Colorado will be to be labeled front-runners again, since that didn’t turn out so well in last year’s Race to the Top.)
Rated as unlikely contenders are five states: Alabama, Alaska, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.