Lowest Reading Scores By State (PHOTOS)

If you want to know reading scores, the NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, tests students every year in reading and math to see how far they have come from previous years, and to determine how students are generally progressing.

The most recent available are shocking. It is simply startling how low some states performed on the reading portions of the tests. Massachusetts came in first place, with 47 percent of its students scoring "proficient" or above on the reading portion.

Below is a slideshow of the lowest performing states for the 4th grade reading test portion of 2009.

You can check out how the other states ranked, as well as other information like school funding and demographics here.

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Tennessee

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In Tennessee, 28 percent of 4th graders scored "proficient" or above in reading.

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In Tennessee, 28 percent of 4th graders scored "proficient" or above in reading.

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Comments

[Renee Hargrove]

11:46 PM on 03/19/2011

All states with high poverty populations...

[SarahBethPenn]

03:03 PM on 03/15/2011

I am ashamed at how dumb kids of America have gotten. I went to school in WV and my schools were always high scoring. Now kids are so dumb it's scary. I'd say 20% of all student are all that care. It's horrible what lack of parental discipline does to kids. They care more about texting and video games than being intelligent.

[HamboneandFlippy]

02:28 PM on 03/05/2011

Whoever put this slideshow together was definitely aiming for 'proficient'. . . I can't wait to see what the next bland state outline is gonna look like!!!

[pdhen]

03:33 PM on 03/02/2011

So it's official then: Ignorance is an American institution.

[Pandoras Folly]

03:14 PM on 03/02/2011

I went to high school in miss. our freshman class was 487 our graduating class was 187. about 3/5ths of the class dropped out of school.

[zenrunner]

03:01 PM on 03/02/2011

TEN out of fifteen of these states with the lowest reading scores are deep Red states.

Why is that not the least bit surprising?

[Chris Bordeman]

11:23 AM on 03/05/2011

It's probably surprising to you because you are ignorant of statistics. These are utterly misleading ones.

The truth is that these stats have little to do with education quality and everything to do with the proportion of minorities in each of these states to white and asian kids.

Because whites and asians perform much better than minorities (for cultural reasons), because Texas (for instance) has an extremely large minority population and Massachusetts is nearly all white.

Once you factor this out, you'll find that those 'deep Red' states do a better job at educating their populations. In other words, Texas blacks score actually higher than Massachusetts blacks, and whites score higher in Texas than those in Massachusetts.

Now, considering blacks have historically voted 80-95% Democrat and they have by far the lowest scores of any ethnic group, and whites and asians vote mostly Republican and have the best scores, why is it not the least bit surprising­ a Democrat would be so ignorant?

[sharks]

04:24 AM on 03/06/2011

Now that is seriously racist! Really, guy? White and asian people are smarter for "cultural reasons?" Translation: I'm a bigot.

Also, talk about sweeping generalizations! Whites and asians are smart, so they vote Republican, but blacks are stupid, so they vote Democrat? Nice logic there.

My guess is the states that have the highest test scores provide the most funding for public education. Republicans propose sweeping cuts in education. It is no coincidence that so many of these low scoring states are deep red.

You think America is in decline now? Wait and see what happens if bullies like Walker succeed. Qualified educators will be replaced by anyone desperate enough to work for minimum wage with no benefits. If Republicans have their way, the middle class will be eliminated, and America will become a third world nation. What's that, you say? According to the CIA (http://1.usa.gov/4ETDj8), the US is ranked 41st in the Gini index, behind countries such as Cote d'Ivoire (43), Burundi (51), Russia (52), Georgia (58), and India (79)?
Among rich nations, we're ranked 27th in life expectancy- but don't worry. We're still number one in gun ownership, obesity, crime in developed nations, and debt. (source: http://ti.me/emzfIP)

Perhaps it is in Republicans' best interest to keep us ignorant so we keep lapping up their hateful, racist rhetoric. Why do 51% of their supporters polled insist that Obama is not a US citizen? Xenophobia, racism, and fear, fueled by ignorance.

[zenrunner]

07:06 AM on 03/06/2011

Oh yes, it's Blame The Dumb Minorities (Except For The GOP-Friendly Asians) time again. Your asinine argument falls on its face because many of those deep Red states have very small numbers of blacks and Latinos: Oklahoma and West Virginia, for example.

[Dewts]

11:26 AM on 03/02/2011

if the kids can't read the parents failed. kids should be reading before they get to first grade and if they are not it means the parents simply didn't care enough to teach them.

[pdhen]

03:34 PM on 03/02/2011

assuming, of course, that the parents could read, and their parents, and...

[YourRoyalHighness]

10:59 AM on 03/02/2011

This is not only embarrassing, but sad. It says a lot about parenting and where the priorities aren't in this country.

[Aurical]

09:55 AM on 03/02/2011

You can't pour anything into a jug that is already full. There has to be a vacuum for propaganda, racism, and fear to fill. Educated people are less likely to be targeted or respond to propaganda and vote against their own self interest. If you were a traveling snake oil salesman, would you go to Yale's campus or out in the boondocks of Kansas to peddle your wares? Only the easily manipulated would fight against their own interest and take up the cause of the rich. The rich don't have to fight in any wars, literal or figurative, they convince the poor and uneducated to do both for them.

[iver]

06:14 AM on 03/02/2011

Ah, the South. Don't you just love a place where learning is not valued. Where education is not funded well. Where teachers' unions are vilified? Where ignorance is bliss? Words, ideas, facts, literacy: who needs em?

[beerbagger]

03:42 AM on 03/02/2011

SC is numer won!!!

[SilentSolidarity]

01:12 AM on 03/02/2011

Oh, Loous... Loiouss... Louisianna what's wong with chu?. I think I got it right this time. :)

I have to say, you gotta exempt the Western states (Texas, Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico). Especially California has to struggle with new immigrants who need to learn the language before they can read.

[brooklyncitizen]

01:04 AM on 03/02/2011

Even if they are "mostly red states" they are all America's kids...and we are collectively failing them.

[SarahBethPenn]

03:12 PM on 03/15/2011

Maybe so, but some are failing themselves.

[horacepoet]

10:42 PM on 03/01/2011

The majority are southern, republican, red states and by extension are the Beck, Hannity, Rush, and O'Reilly fan base. The citizenry is easy fodder for demagogues. All you have to do is raise the flag, pull out the bible, get really angry, and play country music. Critical thinking, reading, and questioning are for sissys.

[aristippe]

02:36 AM on 03/02/2011

what's wrong with country music?

[iver]

06:24 AM on 03/02/2011

Nothing wrong with country music, but it gets drown out by the Nascar racing.

[Dewts]

11:26 AM on 03/02/2011

its fine until they start to sing.

[Chris Bordeman]

11:36 AM on 03/05/2011

Unfortunately, these statistics are flat out wrong, or simply completely misleading.

The truth is that these stats have little to do with education quality and everything to do with the proportion of minorities in each of these states to white and asian kids.

Because whites and asians perform much better than minorities (for cultural reasons), because Texas (for instance) has an extremely large minority population and Massachusetts is nearly all white.

Once you factor this out, you'll find that those 'deep Red' states do a better job at educating their populations, just their overall scores are weighed down by much larger minority populations (that's probably why Washington, D.C., the only deep blue state with a large number of minorities is in this list). In other words, Texas blacks score actually higher than Massachusetts blacks, and whites score higher in Texas than those in Massachusetts.

[Andres64]

08:44 PM on 03/01/2011

Red states. Shocking. not

[riskybusiness]

11:00 PM on 03/01/2011

When did CA go red? Maybe their low score is because no one speaks or reads English!

[dartagnan]

05:07 PM on 03/02/2011

Ten of the Bottom 15 states are red. (That's 2/3 or 67%, if you can't handle the math.)

[Chris Bordeman]

11:42 AM on 03/05/2011

It's actually the states with the largest minority populations. That's not surprising considering blacks and Hispanics score much lower on tests than whites and Asians and southern (red) states tend to have way more minorities than nearly all-white Massachusetts.

If you remove this statistically wildly distorting factor, you find that whites in 'Red states' outperform whites in 'Blue states' almost across the board. Same for blacks in red versus blue states.

So sorry.

[Andres64]

03:19 PM on 03/05/2011

Cite please.