Report: NJ education top in nation
The personal financial website WalletHub has ranked the school systems of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and concluded New Jersey has the top education system in the country.
The author weighted 12 factors. Those included dropout rate, math and reading test scores, children who repeat grades, pupil-to-teacher ratio, safety, and bullying. When all were calculated, the Garden State took best overall score and also first in quality.
Pennsylvania took 10th overall.
Rounding out the top 10: New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Kansas, Colorado, Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Rounding out the bottom 10: South Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and District of Columbia.
The report noted that New Jersey spends the third most in the nation to educate its children. The author found that, in general, states that spent more on education saw better quality. Those with low spending had lower quality. But it also found some that were mixed.