Providing your child with a good education is a concern at the forefront of most parents’ minds. In fact, when Haven Life surveyed Millennial parents, they found that 30% named education as a top financial priority.
Whether it’s paying for private education or purposefully buying a home in the best school district, if it’s financially feasible, most parents will do anything to give their kids the very best. Fortunately, some states offer top public education that can be a little gentler on your wallet. So that begs the question: is your state’s education standards aligning with your own hopes and dreams for your little ones?
In April of 2018, the Institute of Education Sciences released disappointing results from the 2017 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, is a continuing assessment of American students’ proficiencies across math, reading, and other subjects. This scorecard is designed to serve as a common standard by which student academic performance in all states can be measured and tracked over time.
The results from the 2017 assessment showed little to no progress compared with 2015. According to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, “Our nation’s reading and math scores continue to stagnate. More alarmingly, the gap between the highest and lowest performing students is widening, despite billions in Federal funding designated specifically to help close it.”
Despite a disappointing national trend, certain states are performing better than others. To figure out which states offer the best public education for children, the team at Haven Life, an online life insurance agency that sells dependable coverage online, looked at the most recent NAEP assessment data as well as data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Education.
—Haven Life
Methodology
Haven Life evaluated states across three quality measures:
- Academic performance (using NAEP scores)
- Resource availability (using student-to-teacher ratios and per student spending)
- High school graduation rates
Not surprisingly, the results vary widely by state across all metrics. For example, the percentages of 8th grade students at or above Basic achievement levels in Math and Reading range from over 80% in Massachusetts down to just over 50% in Washington, D.C.
Similarly, high school graduation rates range from a low of 69% (also in Washington, D.C.) to a high of 91% in Iowa.
In general, Haven Life found that when considering all metrics, the Northern states outperform the Southern states, with the top 5 best states overall located in the Northeast. Additionally, Haven Life discovered the following:
- State with the best NAEP test scores: Massachusetts (297 Math, 278 Reading)
- State with the best student-to-teacher ratio: Vermont (10.5 students per teacher)
- State with the most per student spending: New York ($21,206 per student)
- State with the best high school graduation rate: Iowa (91.3%)
Whether you are considering a move or just want to see where your home state ranks, the following 25 represent the best public education offerings in our nation.
