Here’s The Best School District In Pennsylvania: Report

A new report has ranked the best school district in Pennsylvania, and the answer may not surprise you, as this district is often listed among the best in the region, the state, and the nation.

The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In Pennsylvania, the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District in Chester County – just outside Philadelphia – topped the list.

The district has 6,553 students and spends $16,156 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is a perfect 100 percent and 77 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In Chester County, which TESD calls home, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $88,995 — much higher than the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in Chester County was just 7 percent compared to the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found Pennsylvania ranked eighth in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in PA, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 86.1 percent (ranked 21st highest)
• Public school spending: $15,291 per pupil (ranked ninth)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 36 percent (math) and 39.1 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 30.8 percent (ranked 22nd highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 53.2 percent (ranked 18th highest)

"Public school students in [Pennsylvania] are more likely to be able to read at the appropriate level than students in the vast majority of other states," the report states. "Some 41.2 percent of fourth graders and 39.1 percent of eighth graders in the state are proficient in reading, each the seventh largest shares among states."

With reporting by Dan Hampton

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