States Ranked From Smartest to Dumbest
11/7/2004 | Netscape News
**States Ranked From Smartest to Dumbest **
The smartest state in the union for the second consecutive year is Massachusetts. The dumbest, for the third year in a row, is **New Mexico. **
These are the findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states. States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.
You may be surprised by this! The U.S. state with the smartest people is…
How does YOUR state rank?
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Vermont
New Jersey
Wisconsin
New York
Minnesota
Iowa
Pennsylvania
Montana
Maine
Virginia
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Kansas
Wyoming
Indiana
Maryland
North Dakota
Ohio
Colorado
South Dakota
Rhode Island
Illinois
North Carolina
Missouri
Delaware
Utah
Idaho
Washington
Michigan
South Carolina
Texas and West Virginia (tie)
Oregon
Arkansas
Kentucky
Georgia
Florida
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Hawaii
California
Alabama
Alaska
Louisiana
Mississippi
Arizona
Nevada
New Mexico
Crikey…let’s add up the states that Dubya took and the states that went for Kerry (this oughta be good)
These are the findings of the Education State Rankings, a survey by Morgan Quitno Press of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states. States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.
I know this is supposed to be for fun, but what the hell do these factors have to do with intelligence?
It’s really an attempt to rate the public school systems.
Well, I think they’re trying to say that the success or failure of a public school system has a direct correlation to how successful a state is in a number of ways.
By any measure, Massachusetts is considered a wildly successful state, with world-class universities, vibrant, interesting cities, charitable citizens and a healthy political debate (they’ve got a Mormon Republican governor and a Democratic Party-dominated legislature).
In fact, they seem to be able to intellectualize a need for power sharing, and a comfort with it, that you might not find in many other states. California is another good case in point. A Republican governor, fiscally conservative and moderate in social outlook, seems to have attracted widespread support in a state that voted for Kerry by a 54.9% total. They seem, on some subconscious level, perhaps, to have found a way to “have their cake and eat it”, too.
I’d rather equate the vibrancy and effectiveness of an educational foundation with the ability to develop critical thinking skills and a certain pragmatism. In those states that are rated more towards the bottom, I’d be curious as to whether or not the local schoolboards and the state education departments adhere to a rigid, doctrinaire (whether from the right or the left) set of academic standards (outside of ensuring the so-called “three Rs” before moving on to the wider social view in education) or have they allowed for a little more freewheeling and freethinking pattern of teaching?
None of this takes into account per capita expenditures on education. I think that that might lead to some surprises for adherents on either side of this debate.
I’m not disputing that. It was evident from the minute I examined it. What are the reasons, though? I think I put forth what I believe to be responsible. I’d like the discussion to be more than “nyah, nyah, nyah-isms” though. Which I’m not saying that you did. Only, that I’d hope we won’t devolve into that
Interesting that the top seven smartest states all voted Democrat
I find it interesting that even after reading the article, you’re not smart enough to realize it isn’t actually a ranking of how smart the people in each state are.
I’d rather equate the vibrancy and effectiveness of an educational foundation with the ability to develop critical thinking skills and a certain pragmatism.
Bingo. Critical thinking skills: the most important aspect to education, in my not-so-humble opinion. And one of the most lacking skills in evidence in this country.
Compare the scientific method (question, hypothesize, test, re-evaluate, more or less) to Catholic teaching (dogma, inerrant, more or less). Compare (my understanding of) Jewish training, where students are encouraged to challenge and question just about anything, and other religious instruction (of which I’m not very familiar).
When the checkout person at the supermarket takes the two bags of grapes out of the one bag I had put them in to weigh them separately (“Uh, they’re both $1.99 per pound”. “But they’re not the same size”), you know somewhere that the ball was dropped. When 75% of Republicans still think that Iraq was involved in 9/11, you know that critical thinking and open-mindedness was not part of their background.
“Despite the 9/11 Commission report saying there is no evidence Iraq was providing significant support to al Qaeda, 75% of Bush supporters believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda (30% of Kerry supporters), with 20% believing that Iraq was directly involved in 9/11.1 Sixty-three percent of Bush supporters even believe that clear evidence of this support has been found, while 85% of Kerry supporters believe the opposite.”
Read the report and tell me which set of voters is more grounded in reality. Read the whole report, and see if you can tell me with a straight face that Bush supporters have a clue about Bush’s actual positions, and the reality of the Iraq war.
By any measure, Massachusetts is considered a wildly successful state, with world-class universities, vibrant, interesting cities, charitable citizens and a healthy political debate (they’ve got a Mormon Republican governor and a Democratic Party-dominated legislature).
In fact, they seem to be able to intellectualize a need for power sharing, and a comfort with it, that you might not find in many other states. California is another good case in point. A Republican governor, fiscally conservative and moderate in social outlook, seems to have attracted widespread support in a state that voted for Kerry by a 54.9% total. They seem, on some subconscious level, perhaps, to have found a way to “have their cake and eat it”, too.
And yet, California is ranked #43 on the list… so apparently, it has nothing to do with public school metrics.
Hey at least since they didn’t list the territories and protectorates the state I currently live in is only 50. Even that is a little high. Probably like 53 (just add a few blanks).
If you get rid of financials and teacher-student ratios and just go by academic achievement (test scores, dropout rates, etc.) I seem to remember those studies moving places like the Dakotas and Utah from mid-pack to top of the list.
For a proper sort of that type of study, you also need to factor in post-secondary academic achievement. I want to know percentages of adults over 24 who have different college degrees.
Compare the scientific method (question, hypothesize, test, re-evaluate, more or less) to Catholic teaching (dogma, inerrant, more or less).
Well, *that’s *a fair comparison. Not.
Catholic teaching holds that in matters of religious faith, the Church is inerrant. To say that teaching is in conflict with the scientific method is misleading, as the questions affected can’t be addressed by science. Your characterization of Catholic teaching as unquestioning is also wrong- much of the great thinking in history has been done under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
**Your characterization of Catholic teaching as unquestioning is also wrong- much of the great thinking in history has been done under the auspices of the Catholic Church. **
All I know is that I went to Catholic schools all 13 years (K through 12). We were so far advanced in every aspect of academic performance in comparison to the public schools, it was shameful. I know, because my 3-years-younger sister went to public schools (she couldn’t put up with Catholic discipline) and I used to be exposed to their textbooks. Our freshman studies, in many cases, were far in advance of what the 12th graders at her high school were being exposed to.
The religion aspect is a separate question, but even there we had Jesuit priests and IHM nuns doing the instructing, and they’re both orders known for their liberalism. There was no question that we couldn’t ask that wasn’t examined and encouraged to be explored.
Catholic schools in America are generally a shining example of what education can be like. If they weren’t so good, we wouldn’t have had 35% of our student body in high school be of other faiths, or no faiths at all. They truly cared only about the teaching and inculcating responsibility and a sense of duty. If that’s bad, so be it.
It sure explains, though, why a majority of Catholics went with the evangelical-leaning Protestant president rather than with their own fellow churchman. Catholics are religious. They’re not stooopid or fundamentalist, and they’re not easily swayed by a fellow who professes one thing and then tries to do another.
And I haven’t been to church in years, btw. I do know, that, that what little moral compass I have left is due to the respect and admiration I have for a group of nuns who gave up every possession and secular joy in life to teach a bunch of us knuckleheaded Detroit hoodlums.
