COSMIQ Research

Data-driven studies on American K-12 education

Independent analyses of public education data — published with full methodology and a downloadable copy of every underlying number. Written by Dr. Matthew Lynch, former K-12 teacher, professor of education, and dean of a college of education.

The Honesty Gap: The States Overstating How Their Kids Are Doing

States say most of their kids are on track. The nation's report card says otherwise. We ranked 38 jurisdictions — the states (plus DC) with comparable published data — by how far their self-reported proficiency rates run ahead of NAEP 2024.

Study #1 · Published 2026-08-18 · Full dataset (CSV) included