[Vision2020] States With the Best (and Worst) Schools

[Kenneth Marcy]

States With the Best (and Worst) Schools

By Thomas C. Frohlich <http://247wallst.com/author/thomas-c-frohlich/>, 
Evan Comen <http://247wallst.com/author/247evan/>, Sam Stebbins 
<http://247wallst.com/author/247samstebbins/> and Michael B. Sauter 
<http://247wallst.com/author/michael-sauter/> January 8, 2016 12:04 pm EST

*http://tinyurl.com/hzgxy3e *

The controversial education law No Child Left Behind has been recently 
revised for the first time since its introduction in 2001. The revisions 
are expected to return a degree of control over education policy to 
state and local school districts. While federal, state, and local 
policies can have considerable impact on education in the United States, 
the way education is governed is just one of many factors driving 
educational outcomes. Parents and community leaders, environmental 
conditions, and the students themselves also play a role. Also, as 
proponents of the law’s revision have indicated, education systems vary 
considerably between states.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed education data for each state from the 2015 
Quality Counts report released annually by Education Week. The report 
assessed measures in three broad categories that can determine the 
strength of a school system: school finances, student achievement, and 
environmental factors. Massachusetts leads the nation as the state with 
the best public schools, while Nevada’s public school system received 
the poorest review.

According to Sterling Lloyd, senior research associate at the Education 
Week Research Center, some states have made large strides over the 
years, but in general, states do not tend to move very much in the 
Quality Counts ranking. “It’s hard to move the needle on some of these 
indicators in the short run,” Lloyd said.

*Click here to see the best (and worst) schools in each state. 
<http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/01/08/states-with-the-best-and-worst-schools-3/2/>*

Socioeconomic and other environmental conditions, for example, tend to 
change only over long periods of time. The prevalence of poverty as well 
as education levels among parents are major determining factors of 
public school quality. In the United States, 56% of children are raised 
in households with income at least double the poverty level. In all but 
two of the states in the top half of the rankings, this share is 
greater. Conversely, this was the case in only four of the 25 lower 
ranked states.

Factors such as these can determine the chances of success not just in 
school, but also over the course of an entire lifetime. These social and 
economic factors “capture the role of education in a person’s life, from 
cradle to career,” Lloyd said.

School districts in high-income areas tend to have larger school 
budgets. Average annual per pupil school spending exceeds the national 
average of $11,667 in 21 of the 25 states at the higher end of EdWeek’s 
ranking. At the lower end of the spectrum, educational expenditure in 
only three states exceeds the national average.

The causal link between school funding and educational outcomes is far 
from clear. According to Lloyd, however, while there is no consensus 
among researchers, advocates for greater school funding argue that 
“funding supports achievement by leading to access to the best teachers 
and the most up-to-date technological resources.”

At the same time, depending on the spending distribution among school 
districts, not all students in a given state can benefit from the 
state’s supposed high spending. In fact, states that spend the most per 
pupil each year also tend to have the least equitable funding 
distributions. All 10 states with the widest gap in education spending 
between the most well-funded schools and the most underfunded schools 
spend more per pupil per year than the corresponding national average of 
$11,667. Per pupil spending in Vermont and Alaska is higher than in 
every other state, yet the spending gap between the best funded 5% of 
school districts and the worst funded 5% of school districts is also 
higher than anywhere else in the country.

Standardized test results are one of the few ways to measure and compare 
academic success among states. U.S. students do not perform well on 
these tests. Massachusetts leads the nation as the only state where over 
half of fourth and eighth graders are deemed proficient in mathematics. 
In no state are more than half of fourth and eighth graders deemed 
proficient in reading.

While students in well-funded school districts are far more likely to 
perform well on tests than students in the less-funded school districts, 
this is not always the case. In some of these states, “students are 
faring well on tests in reading and math even though there may be 
significant barriers in the environment,” Lloyd said. In addition, “the 
states that have made the largest gains often have lower starting points 
to being with.”

To identify the states with the best and worst schools, 24/7 Wall St. 
used Education Week’s Quality Counts 2016 report. The report is based on 
three major categories: chance for success, finances, and K-12 
achievement. The chance for success category includes data on family 
income, parent education and employment, child schooling, and employment 
opportunities after college. Graduation rates are defined as the percent 
of public high school students who graduated on time with a standard 
diploma for the 2011-12 school year. All other data are from the most 
recent available year, and are based on Education Week’s analysis of 
data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The finance category incorporates 
metrics on cost-adjusted per-pupil spending and how equitably spending 
was distributed across districts in the state in 2013. The K-12 
achievement category uses 2015 test score data from the NAEP. Each 
category was weighted equally in determining the final ranking.


*47. Idaho
 > Overall grade:* D+
*> Per pupil spending:* $8,163 (4th smallest)
*> High school graduation rate:* 84.0% (16th highest)
*> Pct. of eligible children enrolled in preschool:* 31.6% (the lowest)

In Idaho, an average of just $8,163 is spent per student on education 
annually, the fourth least of any state. Unlike most states where school 
spending is relatively low, education expenditure in Idaho is relatively 
poorly distributed — the disparity across Idaho school districts is 
worse than in all but two other states. While high spending is 
concentrated in the state, relatively few school districts have adequate 
funding. Just 3.5% of students receive more funding than the $11,667 
U.S. average. Idaho students perform about as well as the average U.S. 
student on the math and reading sections of the NAEP. The quality of a 
child’s early education is one of the most important factor for a 
student’s academic development. In Idaho, just 31.6% of three and four 
year-olds are enrolled in preschool — the smallest share in the country.

*http://tinyurl.com/hzgxy3e
*


(11,667 - 8,163) / 11,667 = 0.300  =>  Idaho's level is thirty percent 
less than the average level

(18,853 - 8,163) / 18,863 = 0.567 =>  Idaho's level is fifty-six point 
seven percent less than the highest level

18,853 / 8163 = 2.31 => Vermont voters spend two point three one times 
as much as Idaho voters on education

Idaho's education expenditure levels are inadequate to achieve 
acceptable educational outcomes for Idaho students.

*
Ken

*

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