A new nationwide report is ranking every state and Washington, D.C. on how they handle the most contentious battles playing out in public school classrooms, from parental rights to diversity initiatives to gender policy.
Defending Education released its first-ever Rankings on Integrity in State Education on Thursday, scoring states across five categories: parental rights, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gender and sexuality policy, teacher and union policy, and foreign influence in schools, including ties to the Chinese government.
Tennessee topped the overall ranking, followed by Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Iowa. At the bottom of the list sat Washington, D.C., with Rhode Island, California, Oregon and Illinois just above it.
The report does not weigh test scores or graduation rates. Instead, it’s built to show parents how their state approaches the policy fights that have consumed school board meetings and statehouses in recent years.
“For the first time, parents have a single resource to see how their state handles the issues they’ve voiced concerns about over the last five years, empowering them to evaluate local schools and hold leaders accountable at the ballot box,” said Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives at Defending Education.
How the categories broke down
In the parental rights category, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia tied for first place. Those states earned points for policies giving parents more control over decisions involving student gender transitions, sex education instruction, and whether their children take part in those lessons.
Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina received perfect scores for teacher and union policy, a category built around laws on teacher strikes, collective bargaining and work authorization requirements.
Iowa, Missouri and West Virginia led the DEI category, scoring well for laws restricting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives along with policies touching restorative justice, teacher diversity programs and antisemitism.
On gender and sexuality — one of the most heated fronts in the broader education debate, which includes disputes over transgender athletes in women’s sports — Alabama, Florida and Indiana tied for the top marks. That category measured restrictions on LGBTQ-specific curriculum, limits on transgender athletes in school sports, and state nondiscrimination and anti-bullying laws tied to gender identity.
Seven states — Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas — earned perfect scores in the foreign influence category, which looked at laws curbing Chinese government involvement in education, including Confucius Institutes, the China-backed language and cultural centers that have drawn scrutiny on American campuses.
Reaction from the report’s authors
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of government affairs at Defending Education, praised the top-ranked states.
“If your state is at the top of Defending Education’s rankings, congratulations! You live in a state with public school policies that prioritize sound academics over shameless antics.”
Stoops was sharply critical of the lowest-ranked states, saying their elected leaders had “sacrificed educational excellence at the altar of social justice.”
“For parents in bottom-feeder states who value rigor over ridiculousness, the choice is either fight or flight.”
The report’s authors say the goal is to give parents nationwide a clearer, side-by-side view of where their state stands as these policy disputes continue to shape what happens in American classrooms.
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