Georgia Schools Rank 38th In The Nation, Study Says

ATLANTA, GA — Well, it's better than being last, we suppose. Georgia finished ahead of 12 states and the District of Columbia, ranking 38th in a new study analyzing the quality and safety of the nation's schools. Georgia's place in the rankings, by personal finance website WalletHub, came from a No. 36 ranking for quality and a No. 38 total for safety.

To come up with the scores, WalletHub researchers used 21 metrics. They included quality factors like graduation rates among low-income students, dropout rates, reading and math scores and the percentage of students who take college-entrance tests like the SAT.

Read the full WalletHub study here.

Also factored in to the study were safety issues, like incidents of bullying, youth incarceration rates, the share of students with access to illegal drugs and the share of students who have participated in acts of violence. Georgia did not finish in the top five or bottom five in any of the study's categories.

The Peach State's final score of 47.32 placed it just behind South Dakota (47.4) and just ahead of Hawaii (47.23).

Massachusetts finished first in the rankings with a score of 78.16, followed by New Jersey, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Vermont. The five lowest scoring states (included in the study was the city of Washington, D.C.) were Mississippi, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, New Mexico and Louisiana — which finished last with a score of 27.42.

Here is the whole list:

1. Massachusetts 78.16
2. New Jersey 66.92
3. New Hampshire 64.65
4. Wisconsin 64.25
5. Vermont 64.09
6. Virginia 63.77
7. Minnesota 62.68
8. Connecticut 61.31
9. Iowa 61.06
10. Maine 59.93
11. Illinois 58.32
12. Delaware 58.09
13. North Carolina 57.68
14. Colorado 56.28
15. Kansas 56.24
16. Pennsylvania 56.10
17. Utah 55.95
18. Oklahoma 55.22
19. Maryland 54.79
20. North Dakota 54.67
21. Florida 54.02
22. Indiana 54.00
23. Ohio 53.51
24. Washington 53.36
25. Rhode Island 52.96
26. New York 52.52
27. Kentucky 51.58
28. California 51.45
29. Montana 51.40
30. Nebraska 51.22
31. Missouri 50.94
32. Michigan 50.55
33. Wyoming 50.40
34. Texas 49.15
35. South Carolina 48.58
36. Idaho 47.44
37. South Dakota 47.40
38. Georgia 47.32
39. Hawaii 47.23
40. Nevada 40.99
41. Arizona 40.91
42. Tennessee 40.58
43. Oregon 40.38
44. Alabama 39.06
45. Alaska 38.20
46. Arkansas 37.97
47. Mississippi 35.99
48. District of Columbia 35.85
49. West Virginia 35.42
50. New Mexico 34.79
51. Louisiana 27.42

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