Kentucky was ranked 20th in the United States on a report named 2018’s States with the Best and Worst School Systems released Monday by the personal-finance website WalletHub.
In order to determine the best school systems in America, WalletHub officials said they compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 25 key measures of quality and safety. The data set ranges from pupil-teacher ratio to dropout rate to median standardized-test scores.
In response, Kentucky Interim Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis said he was pleased that Wallethub’s rankings recognize Kentucky’s efforts to improve the quality of schools, but there was desperate need for improvement in some areas.
The methodology used for the ranking included scores across two dimensions, quality and safety, with scores in each area weighted according to Wallethub’s estimation of their importance.
“ It is clear that Kentucky’s high ranking is the result of Wallethub’s relatively heavy weighting of factors that Kentucky has done a very good job with, including but not limited to high school graduation rate, dropout rate, share of students completing a college entrance exam, and share of certified teachers,” said Lewis .
“Areas where we desperately need to improve include proficiency in reading and mathematics, closing achievement gaps, and ensuring that Kentucky’s high school diploma is meaningful. Unfortunately, our improved high school graduation rates have not translated well into greater success for students in postsecondary education or the workforce.”
