Generally the common spots from all the sites is Massachusetts is usually number 1, Utah is right in the middle and Mississippi is at the bottom. Actually the bottom is usually southern states mixed in with Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. My guess is the southwestern states have a lot of illegals struggling still to catch up.

Here is a reference from HuffPo. HuffPo is a liberal website so they may be cherry picking their data.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/state-education-rankings-_n_894528.html