The 2024 Kids Count Data Book is out and adorned with the lovely smiling faces of children.

Regretfully, Kids Count shows more about how good intentions are not enough and that our public and political focus on education remains grounded in deficit ideology and misinformation linked to NAEP testing.

First, note the focus on education once again using NAEP “proficiency”:

And then, note the deficit perspective for ranking states based on NAEP proficiency:

Imagine if this report focused first on NAEP “basic” and above? And then identified students at or above basic?

Kids Count is yet another part of the manufactured crisis in education that serves negative portrayals of students, teachers, and public schools—and ultimately the education reform industry.

Yet, this report and its negative as well as misleading use of data must make us ask: If kids count, why do we persist in ranking and vilifying those children and the people spending their lives serving them in our schools?