About Measuring Up: How We Measure Change Over Time

"A National Overview: Improvements, Declines, and Disparities" presents each state's progress in relation to its own performance in the early 1990s.

1. Compare each state's results* on the indicators in Measuring Up 2006 with its results from the early 1990s.

Each state's results in this report card are compared with its own results from the early 1990s on all indicators for which there are data.

2. Determine whether the state's current performance on each comparable indicator has improved or declined compared with the early 1990s.

3. In each performance category, identify whether the state has made improvements or not.

With the weights of indicators taken into account,† the state receives one of the following arrows in each performance category:

• Up arrow: The state has improved on more than half of the indicators in the category.
• Side arrow: The state has improved on some, but no more than half, of the indicators in the category.
• Down arrow: The state has declined on most or all of the indicators in the category.

The state has improved on more than half of the indicators in the category

The state has improved on some, but no more than half, of the indicators in the category.

The state has declined on most or all of the indicators in the category.

For more information about indicators and calculations, see the Technical Guide.

* The results, or raw scores, are the numerical values that each state receives on each indicator. (To see how results are converted to grades, see "How We Grade States.")

† Each indicator is assigned the same weight as in grading (see "How We Grade States"). The only exceptions are in those performance categories in which indicators have been added or refined, or in which updated state information is not available; in those cases, the weights are adjusted proportionately.