The quality of a community’s schools is central to any family’s aspirations. Public education has largely been a local matter for school boards and states that allocate most of their funding. Yet for the past several decades, the federal government has entered the field: With the No Child Left Behind Act, President George W. Bush put in place annual testing requirements for states that showed for the first time glaring achievement gaps among white students and Black and Latino students, among wealthy, middle-income and low-income students, as well as among students with disabilities and English learners.
The Obama administration pushed states to adopt more rigorous academic standards and tests, new teacher evaluations and pay systems based in part of student test scores and strict improvement models for so-called “failing” schools. In the twilight of the Obama administration, Congress replaced No Child Left Behind with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which enshrined the annual testing requirement but otherwise represented a sweeping rollback of the federal government’s involvement in K-12 education.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s biggest-ticket education priority was expanding school choice – a big tent that includes everything from charter schools to private and parochial schools to school vouchers and education savings accounts. Despite striking out at the federal level, the focus served to expand school choice options in a handful of states.
New Jersey is the top state for education. It’s followed by Massachusetts, Florida, Washington and Colorado to round out the top five. Six of the 10 states with the best education systems also rank among the top 10 Best States overall.
Learn more about the Best States for education below.
RANK STATE
HIGHER EDUCATION
PRE-K-12
1
New Jersey
27 1
2
Massachusetts
25 2
3
Florida
1 16
4
Washington
2 11
5
Colorado
5 7
6
Connecticut
43 3
7
North Carolina
7 15
8
Wisconsin
15 8
9
Nebraska
10 13
10
Utah
6 21
11
Illinois
32 6
12
Virginia
17 10
13
New Hampshire
46 4
14
Maryland
12 14
15
Vermont
44 5
16
New York
14 19
17
Minnesota
18 18
18
Iowa
11 24
19
South Dakota
8 29
20
California
3 40
21
Wyoming
4 39
22
Indiana
34 9
23
Kansas
13 27
24
Delaware
20 22
25
North Dakota
16 34
26
Georgia
19 30
27
Hawaii
21 28
28
Maine
40 12
29
Idaho
30 23
30
Missouri
26 26
31
Ohio
35 20
32
Montana
22 36
33
Tennessee
29 31
34
Texas
31 35
35
Oregon
23 37
36
Kentucky
38 33
37
Pennsylvania
50 17
38
Michigan
42 32
39
Rhode Island
49 25
40
Nevada
9 48
41
Arkansas
41 38
42
Oklahoma
28 44
43
Mississippi
37 43
44
South Carolina
45 42
45
West Virginia
47 41
46
Arizona
33 47
47
Alabama
39 45
48
Louisiana
48 46
49
Alaska
36 49
50
New Mexico
24 50
No comments:
Post a Comment