non-union states have lower SAT scores
March 6, 2011 am31 11:37 am
tags: collective bargaining, SAT
This is making the rounds:
Only five states do not currently allow collective bargaining for educators.
Those states and their SAT/ACT rankings are as follows:
South Carolina: 50
North Carolina: 49
Georgia: 48
Texas: 47
Virginia: 44
I’ve seen it in a gazillion places, do not know the source.
Critique: Correlation ≠ causation. We can conclude neither that low test scores lead to no collective bargaining, nor that the lack of collective bargaining leads to low test scores. We can say safely that there appears to be some sort of link.
from → Education, Teachers Unions
3 Comments
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JD2718 
Look at the states they list (since I live in one). These states have higher percentages of minorities as well.
I saw a wonderful study of the same list. It compared scores by ethnicity. Sometimes the south rates higher.
Here is the link for Kyle Wingfield’s column. http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2011/03/03/do-unionized-teachers-really-produce-better-results/?cxntfid=blogs_kyle_wingfield
JD,
Here are the bottom SAT states
45 Texas 484 505 473 1462 53%
46 New York 484 499 478 1461 85%
47 Hawaii 483 505 470 1458 58%
48 Georgia 488 490 475 1453 74%
49 South Carolina 484 495 468 1447 66%
50 District of Columbia 474 464 466 1404 76%
51 Maine 468 467 454 1389 92%
The ones at the top (24 of them) are usually the ones with low participation..
Out of states with more than 50% taking the SAT, Washington came top,,
25 Washington 524 532 508 1564 54%
Virginia did pretty well in 2010…
34 Virginia 512 512 497 1521 67% They were about 11th of the states who had more than 50% take the test..
38 North Carolina 497 511 477 1485 63% was also in the same area..
The data can all be checked at http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/cb-seniors-2010
I found the source, and there is something strange with it. I need to pull it apart carefully. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/states/usMAIN.html
On the other hand, the correlation between gonorrhea and lower rates of unionization seems solid: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/states/USCHARTG.html
Jonathan