School districts only account for 1% to 2% of the variance in student achievement. However, in Florida 10% of districts perform below the expected average given the characteristics of students and 7% perform below. For North Carolina, 10% perform above and 14% perform below. Given that student level characteristics account for 59% of the variance in achievement, this shows that at the extremes, school districts may have an impact. At these extremes, 0.30 standard deviations separate the highest and lowest performing districts in Florida and 0.42 standard deviations of difference exist in North Carolina. This means that the average 4th and 5th grader in the top-performing districts in Florida and North Carolina would be 60% and 80% of a school year ahead of the average 4th and 5th grader in the lowest performing districts, respectively.