Massachusetts is the top state for education. It's followed by New Jersey, Florida, Washington and New Hampshire to round out the top five. Seven of the 10 states with the best education systems also rank among the top 10 Best States overall.
U.S. News and World Report recently ranked the United Kingdom as the number one country for education.
The least educated state is Mississippi, followed by West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.
How educated is Alabama? According to a WalletHub study, the state ranks among the country's least educated states.
Here, the 10 worst states for education, according to the latest data.
- Arkansas.
- Alabama.
- Mississippi.
- Oklahoma.
- West Virginia.
- Louisiana.
- Nevada.
- New Mexico. In September, another Quality Counts report feature the K-12 Achievement Index, looking at graduation rates, academic scores, and other indicators.
The 10 most and least educated cities in the United States
- 143. Stockton-Lodi, CA.
- 144. Salinas, CA.
- 145. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC. Total score: 22.29.
- 146. Modesto, CA. Total score: 20.57.
- 147. Bakersfield, CA. Total score: 16.28.
- 148. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX. Total score: 11.32.
- 149. Brownsville-Harlingen, TX. Total score: 8.75.
- 150. Visalia-Porterville, CA. Total score: 6.87.
Based on this report, the top states for education were:
- Vermont.
- New Hampshire.
- Connecticut.
- Maryland.
- Wyoming.
- Pennsylvania.
- New York.
- Minnesota.
| Overall Rank* | State | 'Educational Attainment' Rank |
|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 1 |
| 2 | Maryland | 3 |
| 3 | Colorado | 2 |
| 4 | Vermont | 5 |
The states with the highest average high school graduation rates are Iowa, Kentucky and North Dakota, each graduating an average of 94% of its classes in 2018. Other states fall short.
The country with the highest school dropout rate is Malta, with 40.5%.
Declining college graduation rates are an indication of a flawed education system. Today just 40 percent of college students earn a degree in four years. Many claim that the most central of these factors is an inadequate secondary school system that fails to prepare students for college.
Money. Some high school students and college students drop out because they want to work to earn money. Most high school and college students don't have the time and energy to go to school all day, complete homework assignments and still work enough hours to support lofty expenses.
Why is a school's graduation rate important? The graduation rate gives students insight into how many students are finishing their degrees in a timely manner once they enroll. It not only is a transparent metric that holds a school accountable, but it also can help a student measure the quality of the school.
About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time. The U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries. The dropout rate has fallen 3% from 1990 to 2010 (12.1% to 7.4%).
Retention rate
Knowing the national averages will give you a good barometer for comparison. The national average for retention rate is about 61.1 percent. That is, 61% of freshmen nationally return to their school to enroll in the following fall (2016 data).Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment of any race, followed by whites who had a higher percentage of high school graduates but a lower percentage of college graduates.
Graduation rates vary greatly by state and race. Nationwide, black students graduated at a rate of 69 percent; Hispanics graduated at 73 percent; whites graduated at a rate of 86 percent.
