In Conclusion...

1. The ranking of best states for education can vary widely. Part of that is due to the fact that there's also a variety of methods to try to calculate the best in education, another reason is that it's difficult to compare schools when they all teach different things. Regardless, it just shows that the US is inconsistent when evaluating schools. If school rankings have this many discrepancies, shouldn't that be a red flag that education isn't being delivered consistently around the US.

2. Many Americans move each year. If you look at the beginning of the US to now, people are moving more than ever. It would be logical to make sure schools have the same requirements everywhere.

3. A fair amount of high school graduates aren't prepared for college. Isn't one of the functions of high school to prepare students for college? If education requirements were standardized, less time would be wasted trying to calculate how well schools are doing and more time could be spent improving them.

Some Things to Think About...

Education is a very broad and controversial subject. There's a lot of points to discuss, and they all intertwine deeply. Sometimes it can get confusing keeping track of all the various components and whether or not they're really effective. Here are just some questions related to my topic-

1. Are there different kinds of learners? Should teachers be able to know how to teach to each type? Should requirements be adjust based off of what kind of learner a student is? Is that fair?

2. Is high-stakes testing necessary? Is it accurate? Should colleges place more or less importance on these scores?

3. What is intelligence? Are there multiple kinds of intelligence? How do you measure for each kind? Which kinds of intelligence matter? Why do we place so much importance on them?

4. Should classes be solely pass/fail? Is that fair? Are letter grades fair? Does education have to be fair?

5. Is the letter grade system consistent? Does it vary from teacher to teacher?

6. What should be taught in US schools? How do you determine what information is useful and what information isn't? Should we compare ourselves to other countries and the ways they teach?

7. How can schools account for creativity? Is creativity useful? How useful? How can you define creativity? Should colleges place more importance on creativity?

Facts About Education #3

1. As of 2013, less than 1/3 of all high school graduates were ready for entry-level college classes in the four core areas: English, math, science, and reading.

2. Of the 1.8 million high school students who took the ACT that year, only 26% reached the college readiness benchmarks in all four subjects.

3. 27% reached the benchmarks in two or three of the subjects.

4. 16% reached the benchmark for only one of the four core areas.

5. This means that roughly 30% of the students who took the ACT in 2013 didn't meet any of the college readiness benchmarks.

6. Minnesota and Wisconsin were the best in at reaching the benchmarks, while Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina performed the worst.



http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/21/high-school-graduates-still-struggle-with-college-readiness

Facts About Education #2

1. Twenty percent of all first-time undergraduates take at least one remedial course. (2011)
2.  Nationwide the number of high school graduates is expected to grow 10 percent in the next 10 years.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/09/06/20-surprising-higher-education-facts

Facts About Education #1

1. High schools are not preparing students with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel after graduation. Only 1 in 4 high school students graduate college-ready in the 4 core subjects of English, reading, math and science.

2. Roughly half of the students who enter a 4-year school will receive a bachelor’s degree within 6 years.

3. Approximately 6 million students, grades 7 through 12, are struggling to read at grade-level. Among the highest, 70% of 8th graders read below the standard. 

4. 1.3 million high school students don't graduate on time yearly. States with highest rates (80-89%) are Wisconsin, Iowa, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. States with lowest (less than 60%) are Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, Georgia and S. Carolina.

*Graduation rates don't necessarily mean a school is good. Massachusetts is commonly ranked as one of the best states for education standards, but they're not among the states with the highest graduation rates. Wisconsin might have much lower standards. In theory, a student from a state with low education standards and a state with high education standards could be accepted to the same college. Colleges will view both as equally prepared, while one of the students is actually farther behind than the other, unaware that the label "high school graduate" doesn't mean the same thing in each state.




   https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-education-america

Statisitics on Moving 2013

According the US Census Bureau, over 7.2 million Americans moved to different states last year. The last estimate of the population determined the US has over 312.4 million people. This means that around 1 in 50 Americans moved.

Washington Post 2014 Best States for Education

Here's a link to another website with a yet a different ranking of the best and worst states in education. The top three are Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont (in that order).

Wallethub 2014 Best States for Education

Here's an additional report on the best education state wide. These rankings were determined by a team of several experts using metrics like "pupil to teacher ratio" and "reading scores" among other things. To see the original report, click here. According to this site, the top three sates for a high school education are New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Vermont- different from US News Education's findings.



Top Ranking States

Overall Rank	State	School System Quality Rank	Education Output & Safety Rank
1	New Jersey	1	2
2	Massachusetts	2	12
3	Vermont	3	11
4	New Hampshire	4	15
5	Kansas	8	3
6	Colorado	13	1
7	Virginia	10	4
8	Minnesota	6	31
9	Wisconsin	7	20
10	Pennsylvania	5	43
11	Iowa	9	19
12	Texas	24	5
13	Connecticut	11	38
14	Maryland	16	27
15	Washington	14	50
16	Ohio	21	15
T-17	Illinois	20	24
T-17	Maine	12	42
19	Missouri	22	13
20	New York	27	7
21	Utah	28	8
22	Indiana	19	33
23	Nebraska	17	34
24	South Dakota	25	18
25	Wyoming	15	45
26	North Dakota	18	47
27	Idaho	26	34
28	Tennessee	32	6
29	Florida	29	22
30	Montana	23	48
31	Rhode Island	31	29
32	Georgia	35	13
33	Oregon	30	41
34	Delaware	37	21
35	Hawaii	36	25
36	Oklahoma	43	9
37	North Carolina	38	17
38	Alaska	42	23
39	California	33	51
40	Michigan	34	44
41	Kentucky	40	39
42	South Carolina	44	28
43	Arizona	41	37
44	Arkansas	39	49
45	West Virginia	45	26
46	New Mexico	46	10
47	Nevada	47	36
48	Louisiana	49	40
49	Alabama	48	46
50	Mississippi	51	30
51	District of Columbia	50	31

US News 2014 Best States for Education

Below is a chart from the US News website, which determined that the state with the top high schools was Maine, followed by California then Connecticut. The schools rankings were determined based off of a College Readiness Index that was calculate by AP tests taken, AP tests passed, and he number of students who participated in IB. It's important to keep in mind that the schools eligible for ranking had to have a large enough 12th grade, have AP and/or IB programs, and had to perform better than the state's average proficiency tests. They then accounted for the disadvantaged students' scores and ranked them accordingly. You can read more in depth about the methodology here.



Top Ranking

State rank	State	Number of eligible high schools*	Total number of gold medal schools	Percent of schools with gold medals	Total number of silver medal schools	Percent of schools with silver medals	Total number of gold and silver medals	Percent of schools with gold and silver medals
1	ME	90	4	4.4%	16	17.8%	20	22.2%
2	CA	1,872	105	5.6%	310	16.6%	415	22.2%
3	CT	188	17	9.0%	20	10.6%	37	19.7%
4	MA	341	22	6.5%	41	12.0%	63	18.5%
5	MD	228	13	5.7%	29	12.7%	42	18.4%
6	NH	83	0	0.0%	13	15.7%	13	15.7%
7	VA	319	20	6.3%	28	8.8%	48	15.0%
8	OH	824	22	2.7%	93	11.3%	115	14.0%
9	TX	1,382	54	3.9%	135	9.8%	189	13.7%
10	CO	331	14	4.2%	31	9.4%	45	13.6%
11	VT	59	0	0.0%	8	13.6%	8	13.6%
12	NY	1,136	55	4.8%	99	8.7%	154	13.6%
13	FL	602	29	4.8%	52	8.6%	81	13.5%
14	DC	31	2	6.5%	2	6.5%	4	12.9%
15	WA	433	9	2.1%	46	10.6%	55	12.7%
16	IN	362	4	1.1%	41	11.3%	45	12.4%
17	GA	414	17	4.1%	34	8.2%	51	12.3%
18	KY	229	5	2.2%	23	10.0%	28	12.2%
19	AK	82	0	0.0%	10	12.2%	10	12.2%
20	NJ	383	25	6.5%	19	5.0%	44	11.5%
21	IL	628	19	3.0%	53	8.4%	72	11.5%
22	AZ	378	8	2.1%	35	9.3%	43	11.4%
23	NC	329	2	0.6%	34	10.3%	36	10.9%
24	RI	49	1	2.0%	4	8.2%	5	10.2%
25	NV	73	1	1.4%	6	8.2%	7	9.6%
26	OR	283	4	1.4%	22	7.8%	26	9.2%
27	NM	160	3	1.9%	11	6.9%	14	8.8%
28	PA	674	7	1.0%	49	7.3%	56	8.3%
29	HI	49	0	0.0%	4	8.2%	4	8.2%
30	MT	37	1	2.7%	2	5.4%	3	8.1%
31	AR	273	1	0.4%	21	7.7%	22	8.1%
32	DE	25	0	0.0%	2	8.0%	2	8.0%
33	MN	518	7	1.4%	34	6.6%	41	7.9%
34	MI	780	10	1.3%	50	6.4%	60	7.7%
35	WI	446	2	0.4%	32	7.2%	34	7.6%
36	SC	207	2	1.0%	12	5.8%	14	6.8%
37	ID	166	1	0.6%	10	6.0%	11	6.6%
38	WY	62	0	0.0%	4	6.5%	4	6.5%
39	WV	112	0	0.0%	7	6.3%	7	6.3%
40	OK	281	4	1.4%	11	3.9%	15	5.3%
41	TN	333	4	1.2%	13	3.9%	17	5.1%
42	AL	356	3	0.8%	12	3.4%	15	4.2%
43	IA	334	0	0.0%	12	3.6%	12	3.6%
44	UT	148	1	0.7%	4	2.7%	5	3.4%
45	MO	473	2	0.4%	13	2.7%	15	3.2%
46	NE	170	0	0.0%	4	2.4%	4	2.4%
47	KS	109	0	0.0%	2	1.8%	2	1.8%
48	SD	122	0	0.0%	2	1.6%	2	1.6%
49	LA	301	0	0.0%	3	1.0%	3	1.0%
50	MS	244	0	0.0%	1	0.4%	1	0.4%
51	ND	104	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%

Background

Of all the topics to pick for a final essay, some may wonder how "Education Reform" or "Standardizing Graduation Requirements" won out. Of the myriad of the things that are wrong with this world, I picked this topic for one very specific reason-

It gives me an adrenaline rush.



That last statement was a lie; if education reform gets your heart pumping you should probably talk to someone. Maybe start a blog about it.

I digressed. The reason I picked this topic is because I moved growing up. A lot. In my latest move, I went from a junior in Park City High School (located in Utah) to a senior in Mountain View High School (located in Colorado). I've personally felt the frustration of retaking courses and skipping some subjects entirely because my new school teaches in a different order than my last one.

It's infuriating.

As a senior in high school, I had to take a government class filled almost exclusively with freshman. In my Utah high school, you take government as a senior. In my Colorado high school, you take it as a freshman. So, you know... that wasn't awkward at all.

Being the only senior in a room full of a freshman.
Having them gawk at you because they think you're stupid and got held back.
Being the only one who knew what an MLA format is and how to include a work cite page.

The maturity gap in that class was almost indescribable, there were a lot of times I wanted to throw my hand in the air and shout You're not even supposed to be here! This is a class for seniors! But I couldn't, because it was a class for freshman in Colorado.

Another thing that I remember pretty well was taking the required Financial Literacy in my Utah high school. A requirement that nearly all the high schools in that state have. Did Colorado have that requirement?

No.

Of course not.

When I moved, not only did I find out I'd wasted my time taking that class, but it was topped off by the fact I would have to take the required Economics class for my Colorado high school. It wasn't like I could refuse, I wasn't allowed to graduate without that Economics class.

Great.

Just great.

It's like switching schools between states is a monster, and required classes are just one face of that beast. Along with that, there's the loss of community scholarship, the loss of certain accreditations, the loss of state-specific residency status, loss of some club, loss of certain electives, and just a landslide of other issues.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter about moving. And I blame a lot of that anger on the education system. I wasted so much time taking freshman classes my senior year, I only took one class that had students my age in it. I lost some potential friends by going through the asinine ritual being educated to what one state thought was appropriate. I lost out on IB certification because my first high school had offered it when my next two didn't. I also lost out on a LISA certification, because the high school I attended as a senior required that students start it as a freshman.

This is what makes me passionate about education reform and standardizing education. It literally gets exhausting sitting down with the new school's principal to argue why you should get credit for a certain requirement because of a class you took in your last school.

I'm not trying to blame teachers or guidance counselors or principals for this. In all my experience, they've always done their best to help and be accommodating. The problem is, they have no idea what I've learned when my Virginia transcript says "8th Grade Honors Math" and they're trying to place me in a Utah 9th grade math class. I could either be ahead or behind, and they have no idea. They just have to take a gamble. I don't blame them, I blame the state level government thought this set up was brilliant.

*sigh*

That got a lot angrier than I intended it to be. There was just so much wasted time, it's hard to think about. I chose this topic because I would love to see the day when future students don't face this same obstacle when they move.