2014’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems
Given the strong connection between educational attainment and income level, WalletHub compared the school systems among the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to encourage parents to help their children realize their maximum potential. We used 12 key metrics, including dropout rates, test scores and bullying incident rates to assess the quality of education in each state.
| States with the Best School Systems | States with the Worst School Systems | ||||
| 1 | New Jersey | 42 | South Carolina | ||
| 2 | Massachusetts | 43 | Arizona | ||
| 3 | Vermont | 44 | Arkansas | ||
| 4 | New Hampshire | 45 | West Virginia | ||
| 5 | Kansas | 46 | New Mexico | ||
| 6 | Colorado | 47 | Nevada | ||
| 7 | Virginia | 48 | Louisiana | ||
| 8 | Minnesota | 49 | Alabama | ||
| 9 | Wisconsin | 50 | Mississippi | ||
| 10 | Pennsylvania | 51 | District of Columbia | ||
Key Stats
- The District of Columbia’s dropout rate is 4 times higher than Iowa’s.
- The percentage of children between the ages of 6 and 17 who repeated one or more grades since starting kindergarten is almost 8 times higher in Louisiana than in Iowa, Utah or Minnesota.
- California’s pupil to teacher ratio is more than 2 times higher than Vermont’s.
- The percentage of public high school students who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least one time during the previous 12 months is 2 times higher in Georgia than in Wisconsin.
- The percentage of people (25 and older) with a bachelor’s degree or higher is 3 times higher in the District of Columbia than in West Virginia.
For the full report and to see where your state ranks, please visit:
http://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/
