5 US States With Best, Worst School Systems

Massachusetts takes top spot; New Mexico is last
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2018 11:14 AM CDT
5 US States With Best, Worst School Systems
Head to New England to increase your chances of finding better schools.   (Getty Images/skynesher)

If you know your children will be in public schools for their entire K-12 career, it might pay to check out which states have the highest-quality educational offerings. WalletHub looked at how all 50, plus the District of Columbia, ranked across more than two dozen metrics in the "Quality" and "Safety" categories, including graduation and dropout rates, median SAT and ACT scores, bullying incidence, and the share of high school students who reported carrying a firearm onto campus. Here, the top five states that can brag about their educational systems, along with their total score out of 100:

  1. Massachusetts; 74.2 (No. 1 in both "Quality" and "Safety" categories)
  2. New Jersey; 67.1
  3. Connecticut; 66.9
  4. New Hampshire; 65.1
  5. Vermont; 63.2
Read on for the five states with the worst school systems by this metric.

  1. Arizona; 37.5
  2. Alaska; 35.9
  3. District of Columbia; 33.6
  4. Louisiana; 32.5 (last in "Safety" category)
  5. New Mexico; 31.5 (last in "Quality" category)
Check out how other states fared here. (The five most and least educated states.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X