States Ranked From Smartest to Dumbest

Netscape News ^ | 11/7/2004 | Netscape News

[pepsi_junkie]

States Ranked From Smartest to Dumbest

The smartest state in the union for the second consecutive year is Massachusetts. The dumbest, for the third year in a row, is New Mexico.

Search by state for reports on the local schools.

These are the findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states. States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.

You may be surprised by this! The U.S. city with the smartest people is...

How does YOUR state rank?
1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. Vermont
4. New Jersey
5. Wisconsin
6. New York
7. Minnesota
8. Iowa
9. Pennsylvania
10. Montana
11. Maine
12. Virginia
13. Nebraska
14. New Hampshire
15. Kansas
16. Wyoming
17. Indiana
18. Maryland
19. North Dakota
20. Ohio
21. Colorado
22. South Dakota
23. Rhode Island
24. Illinois
25. North Carolina
26. Missouri
27. Delaware
28. Utah
29. Idaho
30. Washington
31. Michigan
32. South Carolina
33. Texas and West Virginia (tie)
35. Oregon
36. Arkansas
37. Kentucky
38. Georgia
39. Florida
40. Oklahoma
41. Tennessee
42. Hawaii
43. California
44. Alabama
45. Alaska
46. Louisiana
47. Mississippi
48. Arizona
49. Nevada
50. New Mexico

[pepsi_junkie]

This basically says "the states that spend the most are the smartest".

[Ginifer]

Nope...what it says is that the people who did the research were paid for by the liberal elite. Look at the top 10...no surprise that they are mostly the "blue" states.

[anniegetyourgun]

Then wouldn't that put D.C. on top?

[Archangelsk]

That's true, where I live we have a very high tax base and we have excellent schools. Go 6 miles north and you find schools that struggle with the FCAT.

Just goes to show, no bucks, no Buck Rogers.

[Rocko]

The reddest state in the nation, the state that always goes for the Republican candidate in presidential elections, is Nebraska (my state), number 13. Not bad!

[BenLurkin]

Bizarre. Orwell would approve.

[coloradan]

Smartest countries in the world:

1. Red China
2. Soviet Union
3. Cuba
4. France
...
349. United States
350. Switzerland

[Rockpile]

"The U.S. city with the smartest people is..."

CITY?? How impressive.

[Mr. Keys]

Yep, the people in Mass. are sooooo smart.

[Se7eN]

Florida dumps a ton of cash into education through the lottery. Sad, they are 39th hehe..

[z3n]

This study is dumber than the dumbest student in New Mexico

"These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios."

WTF does average expendature per pupil have to do with how smart a state is? Time and again, it has been proved that in education, the system is by far more important than how much money you throw at it.
Average class size? What about those ivory league colleges with large lecture halls? How is it that they seem to be able to educate people there?
Again, I say, the correlations are far too loose. These assumptions may be accepted by peers, but they are still assumptions.

Seriously, if you are going to do at study like this, how about weighting it on testing? Even that I would argue with, but it is better than these silly stats on educational methodology.

[dennisw]

heh

[Archangelsk]

They also happen to be the states where the per capita income is highest, but what the hell do I know.

[OhMike]

...and what kind of a dumbass would buy into this measure of intelligence? Was this article commissioned by the NEA?

It's stupid to equate spending with smarts. One might argue the opposite: which states get the most bang for the education buck?

Also, maybe somebody can explain how average class size and pupil-per-teacher ratio don't amount to the same thing. Maybe the teacers' unions can convince us to give extra credit for the most teachers per principal or for the fewest students per classroom.

I think whoever came up with this needs to stay after school.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

By basing "Dumbest" on school data, they are essentially calling school children "dumb."

How stigmatizing. I think we should all write letters to the editor attacking this attack on these children's self esteem.

;-)

[Brilliant]

LOL. Just shows how dumb you are. You must come from one of those states that doesn't spend much on education.

[doctora]

Yep. Definitely keep us sending candidates from Mass.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

That's crazy, they have Washington as 30th smartest.

Washington elects Patty Murray comfortably and Baghdad Jim McDermott gets 80% of the vote in his congressional district.

If Washington is any higher than 50th this is a bogus ranking.

[Archangelsk]

Uh, the Soviet Union no longer exists. (Shaking my head ruefully).

[VRWCTexan]

Texas is ranked lower due to high drop-out rate - this rate is largely a function of the high percentage of illegal aliens that pop in and out of our schools -

Coupled with the unfortunate fact that in the (first generation) Hispanic culture they do not encourage young girls to stay is school much past JR High school

My commentary is based on first hand observations and statistics by my wife how spent 30 years teaching in districts that became 50%+ Hispanic over a period of years.