States manipulating statistics?

Here's a report that suggests that states like Alabama are gaming the system under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to make their schools appear better than they really are. Alabama jumped 17 spots in an annual ranking of states that determines well it appears to be meeting various education measures. The percentage of its schools showing the amount of improvement required by federal law increased in one year from half to almost 90%.

The DC-based Education Sector believes evidence suggests otherwise for Alabama and other states. It doesn't appear that Arkansas can be accused of manipulating figures -- we slid from 32nd to 35th in the Pangloss Index this year. Still, we're maintaining an adequate yearly progress above states like Florida, New York, Missouri, California, Rhode Island, and Arizona.