MacIver News Service | August 2, 2016
A new national report by Wallet Hub has put Wisconsin’s schools in the top five.
By combining two metrics — school quality and safety — Wisconsin ranked fifth with 62.24 points out of a hundred. Massachusetts ranked first with 73.65 points. Breaking down the individual categories of school quality and safety shows that Wisconsin schools are ranked seventh for quality and are the second safest across the country.
Author Richie Bernardo used 13 metrics to determine school quality, a few of which include dropout rates, average ACT/SAT scores, pupil-teacher ratios, and math and reading proficiency. Considering dropout rates only, Wisconsin is third best, tied with New Jersey.
Safety ratings were determined by considering what percentage of public school students in high school reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, disciplinary incidents as a ratio of the population, bullying rates, and youth incarceration rates.
The lowest scoring states include Louisiana, New Mexico, Alaska, and Arizona. The District of Columbia ranks forty-seventh.
Read the whole report here.