28 July, 2015
Well known ranking service "WalletHub" compared the quality of education in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. They used 13 different categories to rank each states School system including; 1) Presence of State's Public Schools within the "Top 700 Best U.S. Schools", 2) Remote Learning Opportunities from online public schools, 3) Dropout Rates, 4) "Bookworms" ranks of schools, 5) Student-Teacher Ratio, 6) Math Test Scores, 7) Reading Test Scores, 8) Percentage of graduates who completed Advance placement exam, 9) Average SAT Score, 10) Percentage of High School graduates who completed the ACT, 11) School Safety, 12) Bully-incidents rate, and 13) Youth Incarceration.
In the 13 different categories listed above, number 1, 5 and 13 were used most heavily in the ranking system. The ranking criteria determined that Massachusetts has the best overall school system in the country. The 13 categories were broken down into 2 major categories, "School-System Quality Rank" and "Safety Rank". Massachusetts ranked 2nd overall in School-System Quality Rank and 1st overall in Safety Rank.
In the study Massachusetts ranked 1st for "Highest Math Test Score", 1st for "Highest Reading Test Score", 2nd for "Most Safest Schools" and tied for 3rd in "Lowest Bullying Incidents Rate". Other Massachusetts Rankings included: 11th – Pupil-Teacher Ratio, 17th – Dropout Rate and 25th – Average SAT Score.
The 2nd best ranked school system was Colorado which received the best ranking for "School-System Quality Rank" but was 47th in "Safety Rank". 3rd place New Jersey was 5th in "School-System Quality Rank" and 9th for "Safety Rank". Based on the overall ranking system, it is safe to say that Massachusetts overwhelmingly ranked the overall highest well rounded school system.
To see the full study, click the following link: http://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/#methodology
