First of all, sorry about the hiatus here on The Hall Monitor. I can only speak for myself in saying that I was pretty tapped out after the S&P project and needed a little bit of a rest..

Now on to some education news!

In its annual report on prekindergarten to 12th grade education, Education Week reported that New York, followed by Massachusetts and Maryland, received the highest grades overall.

Education Week rated states in several specific categories, as well as overall.

New York received an A in Standards, Assessment and Accountability and an A in Transitions and Alignment from preschool through higher education. New York was above the national average in each category.

In the Teaching Profession category, New York received only a C+ (versus a C for the nation). Yet New York scored an A- for accountability for quality of teachers.

New York received a B+ for School Finance.

New York got a B under Chance for Success, which measures demographic criteria such as parental education and income.

Finally, New York received a C- for K-12 Achievement (versus a D+ for the nation).

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, “New York’s ratings overall show we are taking the right steps to reform education, improve achievement overall, and close the achievement gap, and remind us how much we still need to do.�