For United Statesians:

[urbpan]

States Ranked: Smart to Dumb



These are the 2005-2006 findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states. States were graded on 21 factors, including student achievement and attendance, positive outcomes, strong student-teacher relationships and school district efficiency. Other factors are the number of high school graduates, reading, writing and math proficiency, percent of school-age kids in public schools, high school drop out rates, student-teacher ratios and class size.

How does YOUR state rank?
1. Vermont
2. Connecticut
3. Massachusetts
4. New Jersey
5. Maine
6. Minnesota
7. Virginia
8. Wisconsin
9. Montana
10. New York

11. Pennsylvania
12. Nebraska
13. Kansas
14. Iowa
15. New Hampshire
16. Rhode Island
17. Wyoming
18. South Dakota
19. Maryland
20. North Dakota

21. Missouri
22. North Carolina
23. Colorado
24. Texas
25. Delaware
26. Indiana
27. Michigan
28. Idaho
29. South Carolina
30. Washington

31. Ohio
32. Illinois
33. Utah
34. West Virginia
35. Kentucky
36. Florida
37. Arkansas
38. Oregon
39. Oklahoma
40. Georgia

41. Tennessee
42. Hawaii
43. Alabama
44. Alaska
45. Louisiana
46. California
47. Nevada
48. New Mexico
49. Mississippi
50. Arizona

Comments

[maybethecat.livejournal.com]

number 10 isn't bad

and i see arkansas has moved up i nthe world

[vyoma.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I'm surprised that Florida isn't much lower on the list.

[wakarusa.livejournal.com]

KS ranks 13? Morgan Quitno Press must have rocks in their head.Either that or the rest of the country sucks beyond all rational belief.

actually, I think the press is based out of Lawrence, now that I think about it. i saw an article a while back about all the hate mail they get for their rankings.

[vyoma.livejournal.com]

No kidding... how does Florida end up ranking 10 places ahead of California?

[(Anonymous)]

Having visited a wide range of California, I'm not surprised. BY and large it's a conservative state as well. It just happens to have two of the most progressive liberal cities in the middle of it

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

That was me, forgetting to log in. I couldn't help it. I live in the 47th dumbest state.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

All the more reason to move and get your kids into good schools. :)

There'll be a nice condo for sale in Brookline (with some of the best schools in the state) in a few years if you're interested. :)

[wakarusa.livejournal.com]

jeb over arnold. I don't know.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Go Vermont!

I wonder if the rankings are skewed a bit due to that "percent of school-age kids in public schools" part. If that means that they are not counting kids who are home-schooled or go to private school, then that might unfairly effect some states' rankings...

I'm also surprised at Maine's high ranking. Two of the schools I went to were great, but one was in the richest town in the state (Falmouth) and the other was near Sebago Lake (where a fair number of wealthier people live). The school I went to for first and second grade in the small working class city of Biddford was average, I suppose. And the school where my mother lives now (in a rural area, mid-state) sucks ass.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Haha! I was hoping Oregon was below Florida. The educational system seems worse here to me. Though 36 vs 38 isn't that great.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Wow, Virginia is 7, maybe I shouldn't have moved from there.

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Pennsylvania is 11. But I'm a true Mainer and they're number 5.

[meryddian.livejournal.com]

Yay! Nice to know I got my grade school education in Connecticut.
Makes me think I should move before I get to having kids, though. 32! OMFG!

Lewis Black has a great commentary about Clinton and how proud he was to mention that during his governor-ship of Arkansas, how the school system went from 50 to 49. He comments that maybe that isn't something to be proud of, and rants, "Do you know how bad you have to suck to be #50?!"

Bit surprised to see CA so low though...

[maybethecat.livejournal.com]

lewis black is awesome, i was thinking of the same thing

[error691.livejournal.com]

We're number one! We're number one!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

How did they qualify student-teacher relationships?

I wonder how California would fare is LA and surrounding towns were considered a separate place.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Also, the VT stat is interesting. I know my sister is planning to send her kid to Stowe schools because they're better than her hick town schools.

[joannajanis.livejournal.com]

well, elmore has a tiny school grades k-6 only. that's why we get school choice woooooooohooooooooooo!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

With like 4 kids in them?

[joannajanis.livejournal.com]

yeah, i don't know anyone who actually sends their kids there. it's not even like a real school. i guess for elementary school elmore kids go to morrisville, then get school choice, but i'm going to use the stowe address and send oliver there!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

I think it's so great that you can do that!

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Damn, 46...that sucks....:(

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Could be worse, You could be 47....Like my state.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

oh ouch...:)

[amazingrando.livejournal.com]

TEN REPRESENT

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to note that, except for Texas, the states along the southern border of the US are all in the lowest 15 of that list. I wonder what the correlation is between percentage of non-native English speakers and rankings in math and language proficiency. Then again, New York is in the top 10, and they have a lot of non-native English speakers, so maybe my tentative hypothesis is bunkum.

[(Anonymous)]

New York City is culturally diverse. The rest of the state, not so much.