Report ranks Utah 42nd in education; educators take review with grain of salt

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah slipped  a notch to 42nd in the nation for education quality, according to the Quality Counts 2012 report released Thursday by Education Week, a trade magazine.

Utah received an overall C-minus (71.9 percent) based on the publication's analysis of a variety of factors, including spending, assessments, school accountability and the state's teaching profession.

The national average grade was a C (76.5 percent).The state ranked 41st last year.

While Utah doesn't fare well in the publication's comparison, state educators say the report is subjective and ought to be taken in context.

"Yes, there are problem areas," said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. But the report isn't so much a representation of the state of education in Utah as much as it is a representation of the "state of mind of the grader."

The report's methodology focuses in part on state laws governing education. According to the report, Utah was given a D for the teacher quality subcategory, which is partially based on whether professional development for teachers is codified in state law.

"We do professional development. It's a practice that we have done forever," said Brenda Hales, associate state superintendent of instructional services. "They couldn't find in law that we do."

Even though teachers are required to show proof of professional development hours in order to renew their licenses, the report doesn't acknowledge the state upholds that practice, Peterson said.

"We're doing what they want but we don't have a statute," Peterson said. "Yes, we're doing it; no, we don't get credit for it."

Another area of the report educators bristle at is the D-plus the state received for kindergarten through 12th-grade achievement. That grade came about in part because state graduation rates appeared to drop by 7 percent since last year. Peterson said that decrease can be accounted for by a change in graduation-rate calculation this year to align with new federal requirements. The report doesn't distinguish between the two calculations and counts only the result.

But Judi Clark, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, said the report's findings should be taken to heart.

"Anytime you have a comprehensive side-by-side comparison on education, we must stand up and take notice. Utah's progress has remained flat; as a matter of fact we actually slid backwards to 42nd in the nation," Clark wrote in an email exchange.