Post: "Thirty-seven states had a narrower gap" than Maryland

...On the reading test, 40 percent of eighth-grade students scored proficient or advanced on the 2011 test, giving the state a seventh place ranking. (Maryland and the nation still have a lot of room to improve).
But the so-called “poverty gap,” or the difference in scores between those eligible for free lunches and those not eligible, was much less favorable.
The 27-point difference in scores was about the national average. Thirty-seven states had a narrower gap.
Forty percent of eighth-grade students in Maryland also scored proficient or advanced on the math test, putting the state in 13th place.
But the 32-point “poverty gap” in scores was significantly higher than the 26-point national average. Maryland came in second-to-last.

Read the full Washington Post article at this link.  Note that former Superintendent Jerry Weast now sits on the Board of Trustees for Education Week, the organization that did the ranking.