Every state has a public school district at the bottom of its own test-score list. According to allk12's analysis of state test results and federal enrollment data, the lowest-scoring districts in 47 states score an average of 24.5 percentage points below the median district in their state, on the share of students proficient in reading and math. (Hawaii runs one statewide district, so it has no ranking.)
They are also poorer. In 36 of the 37 states where federal free and reduced-price lunch counts are usable at the district level, the lowest-scoring district has a larger share of students in the lunch program than the state does, by 23.8 percentage points on average. The one exception is Williston Basin 7 in North Dakota, at 31.4% against 33.7% statewide.
That pattern is why a list of the worst school districts in America, built from raw scores, tends to track where poor children go to school. It is also why this list ranks districts only inside their own state. Each state picks its own test and its own passing bar, and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) says "it is not possible to compare state standards unless they are placed or mapped on a common scale." A 25% proficiency rate in one state cannot be read against 25% in another.
Lunch data accounts for some of the gap, though far from all of it. allk12's BeatsExpectations score compares each school's results with what a school at its poverty level would be expected to score in the same state. Thirty-four of the 47 districts have that score. Leaving out Alaska, where withheld results skew the comparison, the other 33 averaged 23.4 points below their state's average school on that measure. Their poverty alone would predict a gap of 11.8 points. So poverty accounts for about half of the shortfall (11.8 divided by 23.4 is 0.50).
Two districts on the list do better than their poverty predicts. San Juan District in southeastern Utah, where 71.7% of students are in the lunch program against 28.9% statewide, scores 3.5 points above its prediction once its schools are weighted by enrollment. Toppenish School District in Washington, at 86.2% against 48.2% statewide, is 0.9 points above. Two more sit close to their predicted level: Huron School District 02-2 in South Dakota (0.1 points below) and Adams County School District 14 in Colorado (1.4 points below).
Some districts on the list also hold individual schools that rank in the top 10% of their state on BeatsExpectations. Kansas City, Kansas; Jefferson County, Kentucky; and Laramie County School District #1 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, each have three. Gadsden County, Florida, and Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, each have one. allk12's best schools rankings and its report on schools beating expectations list those schools by state.
Five districts score more than 20 points below their prediction: Riverview Gardens in St. Louis County, Missouri (30.3 below), Rochester City School District in New York (24.6), Petersburg City Public Schools in Virginia (24.0), Gary Community School Corp in Indiana (23.2), and Chester-Upland SD in Pennsylvania (21.2).
The lowest-scoring district in each state
Proficient is the share of tested students meeting the state's bar in English language arts (ELA) and math combined. The last column is the district's BeatsExpectations score in percentage points.
| State | Lowest-scoring district | Students | Proficient, ELA + math | State's median district | Lunch share, district / state | Vs. poverty prediction (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Bessemer City | 3,012 | 18.0% | 43.7% | 79.2% / 54.3% | -10.2 |
| Alaska† | Juneau Borough School District | 3,771 | 34.0% | 35.4% | n/a | -9.1 |
| Arizona† | Phoenix Union High School District | 25,115 | 18.3% | 34.7% | n/a | n/a |
| Arkansas | Pine Bluff School District | 2,692 | 10.8% | 39.8% | 100.0%* / 65.2% | -13.8 |
| California | Mojave Unified | 2,902 | 13.1% | 41.5% | 84.5% / 62.9% | -16.5 |
| Colorado | Adams County School District 14 | 5,004 | 10.6% | 36.1% | 87.0% / 45.6% | -1.4 |
| Connecticut | New Britain School District | 9,012 | 16.1% | 55.2% | 75.3% / 44.2% | n/a |
| Delaware | Colonial School District | 8,480 | 21.0% | 37.1% | n/a | n/a |
| District of Columbia | District of Columbia Public Schools (only qualifying district) | 50,525 | 37.4% | 37.4% | n/a | n/a |
| Florida | Gadsden County | 4,018 | 34.2% | 55.5% | 85.9% / 46.6% | -4.0 |
| Georgia | Sumter County | 3,560 | 16.2% | 38.6% | 97.6%* / 67.9% | -7.7 |
| Hawaii | Hawaii Department of Education (single statewide district) | 159,213 | 47.5% | 47.5% | 46.0% / 46.0% | n/a |
| Idaho | Jerome Joint District | 3,919 | 25.4% | 46.3% | 61.9% / 41.6% | n/a |
| Illinois | Cahokia CUSD 187 | 2,991 | 9.9% | 48.8% | 82.0% / 54.4% | -14.9 |
| Indiana | Gary Community School Corp | 4,338 | 8.8% | 41.5% | 61.4% / 47.2% | -23.2 |
| Iowa | Storm Lake Community School District | 2,933 | 46.6% | 76.0% | 70.1% / 41.6% | -11.9 |
| Kansas | Kansas City | 21,538 | 18.1% | 42.7% | 82.4% / 50.5% | -7.5 |
| Kentucky | Jefferson County | 91,317 | 33.3% | 47.1% | 61.1% / 58.1% | -11.7 |
| Louisiana | Morehouse Parish | 2,029 | 18.9% | 39.7% | 83.4% / 66.2% | -8.4 |
| Maine | Lewiston Public Schools | 5,312 | 30.3% | 56.7% | 63.3% / 45.3% | n/a |
| Maryland | Somerset County Public Schools | 2,901 | 28.3% | 44.7% | 75.9% / 51.3% | -3.7 |
| Massachusetts | Holyoke | 4,795 | 10.0% | 46.6% | n/a | n/a |
| Michigan† | Wayne-Westland Community School District | 8,980 | 22.0% | 44.0% | 62.1% / 48.1% | -16.4 |
| Minnesota | Columbia Heights Public School District | 3,395 | 17.8% | 50.2% | 76.8% / 39.3% | -5.3 |
| Mississippi | Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District | 3,718 | 24.2% | 54.7% | 99.9%* / 73.5% | -13.8 |
| Missouri | Riverview Gardens | 5,116 | 8.8% | 45.9% | n/a | -30.3 |
| Nebraska | Omaha Public Schools | 52,466 | 37.2% | 56.0% | n/a | n/a |
| Nevada | Churchill County | 3,081 | 25.5% | 35.4% | 100.0%* / 88.8% | -8.3 |
| New Hampshire | Manchester School District | 11,907 | 23.8% | 49.4% | 45.7% / 23.7% | -9.7 |
| New Jersey | Trenton Public School District | 13,549 | 7.7% | 48.2% | 78.6% / 42.3% | -15.8 |
| New Mexico | Central (Shiprock area) | 4,397 | 24.5% | 35.2% | 100.0%* / 91.0% | -7.3 |
| New York | Rochester City School District | 21,553 | 21.9% | 59.9% | 82.4% / 56.1% | -24.6 |
| North Carolina | Greene County Schools | 2,699 | 31.0% | 50.7% | 99.3%* / 76.9% | -17.2 |
| North Dakota | Williston Basin 7 | 5,413 | 28.0% | 40.8% | 31.4% / 33.7% | n/a |
| Ohio | Mt. Healthy City | 2,704 | 22.9% | 67.7% | n/a | n/a |
| Oklahoma† | Ardmore | 2,546 | 16.3% | 29.2% | 92.7% / 63.5% | -3.4 |
| Oregon | Woodburn SD 103 | 5,220 | 13.8% | 34.6% | 73.3% / 72.5% | -19.5 |
| Pennsylvania | Chester-Upland SD | 3,039 | 8.7% | 50.8% | 100.0%* / 62.3% | -21.2 |
| Rhode Island | Central Falls | 2,515 | 9.1% | 40.7% | 93.4% / 54.1% | n/a |
| South Carolina | Jasper 01 | 2,901 | 25.6% | 46.8% | n/a | n/a |
| South Dakota | Huron School District 02-2 | 2,996 | 37.0% | 52.6% | 67.0% / 40.7% | -0.1 |
| Tennessee | Haywood County | 2,397 | 15.8% | 39.2% | n/a | n/a |
| Texas | Elgin ISD | 5,908 | 26.4% | 48.0% | 79.8% / 61.5% | -12.7 |
| Utah | San Juan District | 2,873 | 26.5% | 44.8% | 71.7% / 28.9% | +3.5 |
| Vermont | Barre Unified Union School District #97 (ELA only) | 2,132 | 42.3% | 53.4% | 49.2% / 47.3% | n/a |
| Virginia | Petersburg City Public Schools | 4,582 | 39.6% | 72.8% | 92.0% / 59.0% | -24.0 |
| Washington | Toppenish School District | 3,263 | 23.7% | 47.1% | 86.2% / 48.2% | +0.9 |
| Wisconsin | Beloit School District | 4,759 | 21.2% | 61.4% | 69.4% / 39.8% | -13.4 |
| Wyoming | Laramie County School District #1 | 13,237 | 45.3% | 54.6% | 44.2% / 42.5% | -9.5 |
Source: allk12 analysis of state assessment results (spring 2025; spring 2026 for Louisiana and Texas) and NCES Common Core of Data, 2024-25. Students is enrollment in the schools included. † Public results are withheld for many schools in this state, so the true lowest-scoring district may be missing. * Near-universal lunch counts usually reflect free meals for every student under the Community Eligibility Provision. n/a: lunch counts missing or unreliable, or no BeatsExpectations score for the district's schools.
How the list was built
Scores are each school's share of students at or above the proficient bar on the state's ELA and math tests, for all tested grades, in the latest year available. For a district, every school's ELA and math rates are averaged together, weighted by the number of students tested. Twelve states (Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, and Utah) do not publish tested counts in the files allk12 uses, so school enrollment is the weight there. Vermont's 2025 data covers ELA only.
Districts are grouped by their federal district ID. A district qualifies if it is a regular district (most of its schools are not charters), has at least 2,000 students, and has test results for schools enrolling at least half of its students in buildings that serve grade 3 or higher. Online and virtual schools, and schools that serve specialized groups such as special education, alternative, and juvenile-justice students, are left out. In all, 4,151 districts qualified. Montana and West Virginia are not listed because their newest school-level results in allk12's data are from 2020-21.
In Alaska, Arizona, Michigan, and Oklahoma, many school results are withheld or missing in the public data. Several districts with low partial results, including Detroit and Pontiac in Michigan, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Isaac and Roosevelt elementary districts in Arizona, and Lower Kuskokwim in Alaska, fall short of the coverage rule. Arizona's listed district, Phoenix Union, serves high school students only.
Lunch shares come from NCES counts of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which get shaky where schools feed everyone. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says its Community Eligibility Provision "allows the nation's highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications." NCES notes that under the provision, some children from households above 185% of the poverty line take part when a district decides to feed every student. Shares are left out where counts are missing for more than 10% of a district's or state's students, and for Alaska, where reporting is patchy. The lunch share and test score report shows how closely the two track in each state; across 41 states, the typical correlation between a district's lunch share and its score is -0.81, where -1.0 would mean scores fall in perfect step as poverty rises.
BeatsExpectations fits a line through each state's schools, predicting proficiency from lunch share, and scores each school by how far it lands above or below that line. It averages 2023-24 and 2024-25 results across tested subjects, so it does not match the table's proficiency column exactly. The district figure is the enrollment-weighted average of its scored schools.
Sources
National Center for Education Statistics: NAEP State Mapping
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service: Community Eligibility Provision
National Center for Education Statistics: Concentration of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch
District scores from allk12's analysis of state assessment results (spring 2025, spring 2026 for Louisiana and Texas); enrollment and lunch counts from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
