Syncopated Systems™
Seriously Sound Science™

Educational Rankings of the United States

by John R. Carlsen

Technology companies—practically by definition—rely on workers with above-average educations.

For many years, I have followed U.S. News and World Report's National Universities Rankings, so I was pleased to discover its Best High Schools: State by State Statistics. In reading its rankings, I became curious about the spatial relationships between the states with the best and worst high schools. So, on the following map, I numbered the states in order of rank and applied a spectral color code to each 10% tier of top performers, using red and brown for below-average and worst performers, respectively.

2011 update: I first published this article in June 2009, after my first semester teaching a college class in computer science, and it immediately became (by far) my most-popular article. About six months later, in December 2009, U.S. News and World Report revised its high school rankings, and I have recently created a revised map based on that data (with preview and link below).

thumbnail preview of 2009 Rankings of United States by High School Quality
2009 Rankings of United States by High School Quality
with Locations of Nation's Top 10 Universities
(Click to enlarge.)

Exceptional Performers

States with high schools outperforming those of their neighbors significantly (by at least one 10% tier) include:

  1. California (in tier 1, outperforming its neighbors by 3-4 tiers),
  2. Illinois and Washington (both in tier 2, and both outperforming their neighbors by 2 and 4 tiers), and
  3. Colorado, Florida, and Texas (in tier 3).

Performance Versus Population

As summarized in the table below, the most populous 10% of states all rank above the national average.

Population Size Rank State High Schools Rank
1 California 3
2 Texas 14
3 New York 5
4 Florida 11
5 Illinois 6

By modifying an excellent graphical representation of the population density distribution withing the United States first published by Time Magazine in December 2010 (but apparently no longer accessible via its Web site), we can visualize potential correlation between population density and above-average high school performance.

thumbnail preview of 2009 Rankings of United States by High School Quality
2009 United States with Above-Average High Schools vs. Population
(Click to enlarge.)

Performance Versus Per-Capita Spending

I have often heard allegations that California spends less to educate each student than nearly any state. Based on the published data, this is clearly not the case.

Using data from the United States Census department''s Summary of Public School System Finances for Elementary-Secondary Education by State: 2008–2009 and population data from the United States 2010 census, we can see a mild correlation between each state's rank and its spending per person on education. (I use population data for simplicity, and infer that the number of students will be closely related.) On average, states spend $1,886 per person on education; Connecticut, for example, spends 35% more than average, at $2,548 per person.

States by High School Rank with Per-Capita Spending on Primary and Secondary Education
2009
Rank		 State Education Spending
Per Capita		 Spending
vs. Average
Above average:
1 Connecticut $2,548 +35%
2 Massachusetts $2,266 +20%
3 California $1,929 +2%
4 New Jersey $2,888 +53%
5 New York $2,959 +57%
6 Illinois $2,094 +11%
7 Vermont $2,358 +25%
8 Washington $1,814 -4%
9 Maine $1,916 +2%
9 Maryland $2,162 +15%
11 Florida $1,535 -19%
12 New Hampshire $1,971 +5%
13 Rhode Island $2,042 +8%
14 Texas $2,125 +13%
15 Colorado $1,717 -9%
16 Nevada $1,694 -10%
16 Oregon $1,749 -7%
18 Kentucky $1,574 -17%
19 North Carolina $609 -68%
20 Georgia $1,962 +4%
21 Delaware $1,929 +2%
21 District of Columbia $1,338 -29%
23 Arizona $1,499 -21%
23 Virginia $1,911 +1%
25 Pennsylvania $1,968 +4%
Below average:
26 Michigan $1,901 +1%
27 Alabama $1,633 -13%
27 Indiana $1,689 -10%
27 Utah $1,598 -15%
30 Louisiana $1,751 -7%
31 Minnesota $2,075 +10%
32 Wyoming $2,927 +55%
33 South Carolina $1,819 -4%
34 Missouri $1,692 -10%
34 New Mexico $1,914 +1%
36 Tennessee $1,352 -28%
37 Idaho $1,326 -30%
38 Alaska $3,374 +79%
39 Ohio $1,929 +2%
40 Iowa $1,810 -4%
40 West Virginia $1,684 -11%
42 Arkansas $1,708 -9%
42 South Dakota $1,550 -18%
44 Wisconsin $1,878 -0%
45 Mississippi $1,534 -19%
46 Kansas $2,038 +8%
47 Hawaii $1,705 -10%
47 Montana $1,625 -14%
47 North Dakota $1,605 -15%
Not ranked:
NR Nebraska $1,917 +2%
NR Oklahoma $1,582 -16%

Education and Voting Habits

Based on the 2008 ranking map, each states' votes in the last four Presidential elections (1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008) correlated positively 71% with the state's high school ranking above or below average. (Most statistics herein have a margin for error of +/-4%.)

States having above-average high schools voted Democratic 64% and Republican 24%; states having below-average high schools voted Republican 78% and voted Democratic 22%.

States with their high schools in Rep Dem swinging
top 25% 8% 75% 17%
2nd 25% 38% 54% 8%
3rd 25% 75% 25% 0%
bottom 25% 82% 18% 0%

These strong statistical correlations suggest that our nation's most poorly-educated people vote Republican, and that blind loyalty to either party decreases as levels of education improve.

For related information, see On Comparing Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.