How do you define a return on investment for the education of our children? Test scores can't tell you what impact their upbringing in their own communities will bring to Alaska's future. 
News flash, because education is federally mandated they can't only fund schools with high test scores. Also if you talk to some of the parents at high scoring schools, they don't want their school overrun and overpopulated by kids who failed elsewhere. 
Beyond all of that is the fact that the "mediocre" schools in Alaska are the most diverse in the nation both in composition and in school environment. In both ASD and FNSB schools we are very competitive with other states. Adding in smaller schools with many inherent challenges our ratings go down, but that doesn't mean we throw out the small schools or the poor performance schools and just say lets only educate the kids who live in good parts of larger towns because they give the most "return on investment."