Dive Brief:
- Using rankings from personal finance site Wallethub, the Huffington Post maps out the best and worst education systems in the nation. Factors affecting the scores include "student dropout rate, pupil/teacher ratio, test scores, rates of bullying and school safety measures".
- Topping the list were New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Kansas. The bottom five systems: Nevada, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia.
- Of the schools in the top five, four of them were also in the top 10 for education spending.
Dive Insight:
While Wallethub's top systems were similar to results in the recent Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Report, there was some variation among those at the bottom. The top states, according to Kids Count, are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — the only difference between the two lists being the swap of Connecticut for Kansas. Kids Count's bottom states are: West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Nevada.
It is interesting that Wallethub found the District of Columbia to be an inferior school system, since D.C. is often touted as a poster child of school reform. That said, its most recent test scores indicated very little rise in academic success or scores.