Glossary

Illustration of waving children standing on bars in bar chart Low Opportunity High Opportunity Scores Illustration of waving children standing on bars in bar chart
The average test score indicates how well the average student in a school, district, or county performs on standardized tests. Importantly, many factors—both early in life and when children are in school—affect test performance. As a result, the average test scores in a school, district, or county reflect the total set of educational opportunities children have had from birth through middle school, including opportunities at home, in child-care and preschool programs, and among peers. Average test scores therefore reflect a mix of school quality and out-of-school educational opportunities.
EXPLORE AVERAGE TEST SCORES
IN YOUR SCHOOL & COMMUNITY
Children climbing stairs inside bars in bar chart Low Growth School High Growth School Scores Children climbing stairs inside bars in bar chart
The learning rate indicates approximately how much students learn in each grade in a school, district, or county. Because most educational opportunities in grades 3–8 are provided by schools, the average learning rate largely reflects school quality.
EXPLORE LEARNING RATES IN
YOUR SCHOOL & COMMUNITY
Illustration of waving children standing on bars in bar chart 2009 2014 2019 Scores School buildings ascending or failing to ascend on a chart that describes achievement over time
The trend in scores indicates how rapidly average test scores within a school, district, or county have changed over time. It reflects changes over time in the total set of educational opportunities (in and out of schools) available to children. For example, average scores might improve over time because the schools are improving and/or because more high-income families have moved into the community.
EXPLORE TEST SCORE TRENDS
IN YOUR SCHOOL & COMMUNITY
Children climbing stairs inside bars in bar chart with each bar representing the years 2009, 2015, and 2019. 2009 2014 2019 Scores Children climbing stairs inside bars in bar chart
The trend in learning rates measures how much annual learning rates change over time. These are a better indicator of changes in school quality than trends in average test scores, which are influenced by a range of experiences outside of school.
EXPLORE LEARNING RATE TRENDS
IN YOUR SCHOOL & COMMUNITY
Socioeconomic status. The FAQ section describes the variables used to measure the average socioeconomic composition of families in each community, both overall and for different groups within a community.
As described in the Methods section, the test-score data in SEDA are adjusted so that a “4” represents the average test scores of 4th graders in 2019 nationally, a “5” represents the average test scores of 5th graders nationally, and so on. One “grade level” thus corresponds to the average per-grade increase in test scores for students nationally.
The average, or “mean,” is used to represent the typical or central value in a set of numbers.
The standard deviation indicates how spread out a set of numbers is relative to the average. The standard deviation represents the typical amount by which any single number differs from the average.
When numbers in a set have been “standardized,” they have been transformed so that the average value is exactly 0 and the standard deviation is exactly 1. After being standardized, positive numbers represent values that are above the average and negative numbers represent values that are below the average.
A standardized test used to measure the knowledge and skills a student has attained in a particular subject, after instruction.
The numeric score earned on an achievement test.
Achievement levels are test scores that have been collapsed into a small number of categories, each defined by a set of prespecified standards for what students should know and be able to do. Each achievement test has three to five achievement levels defined. Achievement levels often have labels describing performance relative to grade-level expectations, such as “basic,” “proficient,” or “advanced.”
The test scores, or boundaries, that separate a set of achievement levels.
A data set containing information about how many students in each group (where groups could be schools, districts, states, etc.) earned scores in each achievement level by year, grade, and subject.
The percentage of students whose test scores were at or above the “proficient” achievement level in each grade and subject.
A set of statistical methods used to facilitate comparisons across different tests.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress; see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ for more detail.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress; see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ for more detail.

A database of school proficiency data from state accountability testing housed by the National Center for Education Statistics; see https://edfacts.ed.gov/ for more detail.

The heteroskedastic ordered probit (HETOP) model is a statistical technique that can be used to analyze proficiency data.
Economically disadvantaged students.
Free or reduced-price-lunch-eligible students.

Understanding the Data

The data are based on the achievement tests in math and Reading Language Arts (RLA) administered annually by each state to all public-school students in grades 3–8 from spring 2009–2019 and from spring 2022-2025. We use the 2009-2019 data reported by EDFacts and the 2022-2025 data reported by the Education Data Center (EDC, see: www.zelma.ai) as the basis for the estimates shown in this explorer.

We combine information on the test scores in each unit with information from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; see https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/) to compare scores from state tests on a common national scale (see the Methods page).

We never see nor use individual test scores in this process. The raw data we receive include only counts of students scoring at different test-score levels, not individual test scores. There is no individual or individually-identifiable information included in the raw or public data.

Educational opportunities include all experiences that help a child learn the skills assessed on achievement tests. These include opportunities both in early childhood and during the schooling years, and experiences in homes, in neighborhoods, in child-care and preschool programs, with peers, and in schools.

The four scores tell different stories.

  • Average test score: The average test score indicates how well the average student in a school, district, or state performs on standardized tests. Importantly, many factors—both early in life and when children are in school—affect test performance. As a result, the average test scores in a school, district, or state reflect the total set of educational opportunities children have had from birth through middle school, including opportunities at home, in child-care and preschool programs, and among peers. Average test scores therefore reflect a mix of school quality and out-of-school educational opportunities.
  • Learning rate: The learning rate indicates approximately how much students learn in each grade in a school, district, or state. Because most educational opportunities in grades 3–8 are provided by schools, the average learning rate largely reflects school quality.
  • Trend in test scores: The trend in scores indicates how rapidly average test scores within a school, district, or state have changed over time. It reflects changes over time in the total set of educational opportunities (in and out of schools) available to children. For example, average scores might improve over time because the schools are improving and/or because more high-income families have moved into the community.
  • Trend in learning rates: Trends in learning rates measure how much annual learning rates change over time. These are a better indicator of changes in school quality than trends in average test scores, which are influenced by a range of experiences outside of school.

For more information on how the average test score, trend in average test scores, learning rate, and trend in learning rates are computed, see the Methods page.

For each geographic district or county, we use data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) to create estimates of the average socioeconomic status (SES) of families. Every year, the ACS surveys families in each community in the U.S. We use six community characteristics reported in surveys from 2020-2024 to construct a composite measure of SES in each community:

  • Median income
  • Percentage of adults age 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher
  • Poverty rate among households with children age 5–17
  • Percentage of households receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
  • Percentage of households headed by single mothers
  • Employment rate for adults age 25–64

The composite SES measure is standardized so that a value of 0 represents the SES of the average school district in the U.S. Approximately two-thirds of districts have SES values between -1 and +1, and approximately 95% have SES values between -2 and +2 (so values larger than 2 or smaller than -2 represent communities with very high or very low average socioeconomic status, respectively). In some places we cannot calculate a reliable measure of socioeconomic status, because the ACS samples are too small; in these cases, no value for SES is reported. For more detailed information, please see the technical documentation available on the Get the Data page.

There are several reasons why we may not show data for a particular state or district.

Estimates for all districts in a state are missing when sufficient data for estimation were not reported by the state in 2022-2025. Insufficient data may result from lack of reporting, low state-wide participation, or changes to the state test.

Estimates for an individual district may be missing because:

  • Sufficient data for estimation were not reported for the district. Public data is often suppressed by the state to protect student privacy. When there is substantial suppression for an individual district, we may not be able to use the data to construct estimates.
  • The district is too small and/or has too few grades of data available to allow for the construction of reliable estimates.
  • The district does not have a geographic boundary; such districts include charter districts and/or specialized local education agencies.
  • Fewer than 94% of students in the district participated in testing in the subject.

For more details, see the technical documentation available on the Get the Data page.

Using the Opportunity Explorer

The Educational Opportunity Trends Explorer offers three different ways of looking at educational opportunity in the U.S.: a map, a chart, and a “split screen" view of both. Use the Map | Chart | Map + Chart buttons in the header to select one of these views.

Light gray represents zero, or “no change” in average test scores.

Positive changes in average test scores are shown in green and negative changes in blue. Darker shaded circles represent larger changes.

Colorblind users: We have made efforts to ensure accessibility for the most common forms of colorblindness. For less common forms (such as tritanopia), colors may be less distinguishable; however, the data are still accessible in the map legend, charts, and other displays.

You can view school or administrative school district data for most states, as well as state-level estimates. To change between location types, use the Region menu in the Data Options panel on the left.

You can navigate to your desired location via the navigation controls in the map. Or type a location name into the search bar in the header.

Hovering (or on a touch device, tapping) on a location in the map or chart will show an overview of that location’s data. Clicking or tapping on the location will open a Location Panel that shows a full view of all available data, as well as options for viewing other selected locations.

Clicking or tapping on locations will also add them to the Locations menu within the left-side Data Options panel. (You can add an unlimited number of locations.) Click or tap on any location’s tab to highlight it in the map or chart, and the Locations menu.

You can select an unlimited number of locations at once. Selected locations will be stored in the Locations menu within the left-side Data Options menu.
Clicking or tapping on any location will open a Location Panel that offers a full view of the data.

In the Data Options column displayed on the left, click Data Filters. Using the controls in this panel, you can filter what data is displayed on the map.

When multiple selections are made, the filters work together to narrow what is displayed. To return to the default view, click the “Reset data filters” button. If a filter is not available, you will not be able to select it.

The chart shows districts in the U.S. Each circle represents a district, and the circle’s size is proportionate to the number of students (e.g., a larger circle is a district with more students). On the vertical (Y) axis is the range of the selected metric in grade levels. On the horizontal (X) axis is average family socioeconomic status.
This map can be customized to show the average test score, trend in average test scores, average learning rate, or trend in learning rates from 2022-2025 for students in U.S. districts or states. The test scores represented here were collected in grades 3-8 from spring 2022 through 2025 at public elementary and middle schools in the U.S.