MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- A new study suggests Tennessee schools are of average quality, and that may be something of an achievement in a region of the country where schools are generally rated poorly.
WMOT reporting partner Wallethub.com is out this week with a report rating education in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Analysts looked at 13 metrics, including student to teacher ratio, standardized test scores, drop-out rates and safety.
Tennessee came in at a middling 26th in the list. Wallethub’s Jill Gonzalez says the state is doing a great job of keeping kids in school.
“The drop-out rate was in the top ten, for having the lowest drop-out rate, just 14 percent of students. It sounds higher than it should be in 2015 but other states had double, almost triple that amount.”
Gonzalez says one of the things hurting Tennessee schools is low student marks on standardized tests. School safety was also a negative.
Tennessee scored higher than Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama, but lower than Kentucky, North Carolina and Arkansas.
Wallethub says Massachusetts has the nation’s best school system, while Alaska has its worst.
Would you like to review the complete Wallethub.com study?