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Defending Education’s 2026 RISE report ranks Tennessee first overall and the District of Columbia last, but its published overall list does not establish that red states rank higher than blue states on parental rights or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Those are two of five categories the report says it covers; the accessible results do not provide category-level scores or ranks to verify the headline’s political comparison.
What the 2026 RISE ranking reports
Defending Education published its Rankings on Integrity in State Education (RISE) on October 1, 2026. The organization says it evaluated all 50 states and the District of Columbia across five education-policy categories: gender and sexuality, diversity, equity and inclusion, parental rights, teacher policies, and foreign influence. The RISE report presents an overall ranking of those jurisdictions.
In that overall ranking, Tennessee is first and Alabama second. Florida and North Carolina are tied at third, followed by Iowa at fifth. Illinois is 50th and the District of Columbia is 51st. These are ordinal positions reported by Defending Education, not scores showing how far apart jurisdictions are.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →| Overall position | Jurisdiction(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tennessee |
| 2 | Alabama |
| Tied 3rd | Florida and North Carolina |
| 5 | Iowa |
| 50 | Illinois |
| 51 | District of Columbia |
The tie at third means Iowa is fifth, not fourth. The list covers 51 jurisdictions because it includes Washington, D.C., alongside the states.
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Does the list prove that red states score higher on parental rights and DEI?
No. The overall order cannot establish a state’s rank in an individual category. A jurisdiction’s overall placement does not reveal its parental-rights or DEI score, and political-party labels cannot fill that gap. The Center Square story republished by Frankfort Local on October 3, 2026, uses the red-state/blue-state comparison in its headline, but the accessible RISE results do not show the category-level tables needed to check it.
Defending Education says it scores states on both parental rights and DEI, but the report page available here does not supply category scores or ranks. Without those results, a state-by-state or red-versus-blue comparison on these two topics remains unverified. The overall ranking supports reporting what Defending Education published, not a claim that the headline’s category comparison has been demonstrated.
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What RISE measures—and what it does not establish
Defending Education describes RISE as a way for parents to assess how state governments handle education issues. Its website says the organization works to keep political ideology and activism out of schools. That context matters: RISE is an advocacy organization’s policy ranking, not a federal assessment or an independently validated measure of school quality.
The accessible report page does not explain its indicators, evidence coding, weighting, scoring scale, treatment of ties, or independent validation. It also does not identify a student-achievement outcome measure that the overall positions represent. Consequently, the ranking cannot by itself show that students learn more in a higher-ranked state, that its schools are objectively better, or that a particular policy caused an outcome.
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Defending Education officials quoted in the Center Square story offer their own interpretation. Director of government affairs Dr. Terry Stoops said, “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.” Senior director of strategic initiatives Paul Runko said, “Parents can only make the best education decisions for their children when they have transparent information.” These are attributed advocacy statements, not findings established by the overall ranking.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to assess the political comparison
To evaluate whether red states rank higher than blue states on parental rights and DEI, readers would need the complete category results and enough methodology to interpret them. A useful comparison would identify the report’s category scores or ranks, then examine how it defines and documents the indicators, the dates of evidence, any category weights, and how it handles ties. Party labels alone do not substitute for those details.
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Until those category tables and methods are available, the defensible conclusion is narrower: Defending Education’s 2026 RISE report names parental rights and DEI among five categories and publishes an overall ranking led by Tennessee. Its accessible overall list does not substantiate the title’s specific red-state/blue-state claim about those categories.
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Sources
- Defending Education: Helping Public Schools RISE: Rankings on Integrity in State Education (RISE), October 1, 2026.
- The Center Square story republished by Frankfort Local, October 3, 2026.
- Defending Education: About, for the organization’s stated mission.
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