How Smart is Your State?

[grinningghost]

#10 - and I'm pretty sure the New York politicians were not considered in this statistic - otherwise we'd be the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Bichon Barb]

Here I go again following you GrinningG. (Did you hear that we are losing 1200 jobs at Carrier Corp.? Love all these wonderful politicians who claimed they were going to bring jobs back to NYS. Fools!)

Well at least we are getting something for all the taxes we pay. That goes for the Northeast in General. Look at all the NE states in the top ten.

 

[tkyes]

Minnesota - it sounds like it's public schools / highschools. I don't think it included colleges. At least from the description it doesn't sound like it does.

 

[manchurianbrownbear]

How many points did we lose for electing Jesse Ventura?

 

[Beauty]

48. Mississippi

My first thought was DANG we aren't 50! I think we need a recount, we have to be 50!! My child is in private school as well. Everything here is going downhill. My DH works in communications and in one of the State Council meetings a few weeks ago he said that a total of something like 280 people moved into the state of Mississippi from April of last year to April of this year while 4,500 people moved OUT!

Two more years and we will be joining them!

 

[grinningghost]

Originally posted by Bichon Barb
Here I go again following you GrinningG. (Did you hear that we are losing 1200 jobs at Carrier Corp.? Love all these wonderful politicians who claimed they were going to bring jobs back to NYS. Fools!)

Well at least we are getting something for all the taxes we pay. That goes for the Northeast in General. Look at all the NE states in the top ten.

Well, if I remember correctly, it was Hilary who made the most job promises - I'm not even sure I remember what she looks like anymore. But man, did she get her face all over the TV during her campaign - usually playing bingo with the senior citizens - or standing at the pulpit promising all those non-existent jobs.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

#27. I expected that we'd fall right about in the middle. Illinois often seems to strive for mediocrity.

Also, notice that most of the "dumb" states are southern? Why is that? Not trying to be sarcastic here, just wondering.

It appears that one of the factors is per pupil expenditures. I wonder if they factored for COLA adjustments? Southern states spend very little on their school systems. But that isn't always the best predictor of school success. Washington DC spends huge amounts of money on their Public School system, yet they traditionally perform very poorly.

I'm rather surprised by this. I go to college in Mass, and after comparing high schools with everyone my school offered a much higher number of AP classes than the Mass schools. In fact, we offer the IB program, which isn't even offered at most schools across the country.

But you do realize there are other places in New York
State than just your Long Island High School, right?

 

[fklhou]

Texas-35. At least Molly Ivin's unofficial state motto for Texas of "we are Mississippi with good roads" is not in jeopardy.

 

[Allie322]

16th....I'm shocked! You'd never know it by reading this excerpt from today's Providence Journal!



08:41 AM EDT on Friday, October 10, 2003

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer


Students in more than one-third of Rhode Island's public schools are performing poorly and the number of high-performing schools has dropped from 41 percent to 28 percent in one year.

Once again, the vast majority of schools needing improvement are concentrated in the urban districts of Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket.

In fact, every urban middle school, which serves sixth through eighth graders, is in need of improvement, continuing a slump identified by last year's test scores.

But there are some surprises in this year's release of school rankings, which are based on standardized tests in English and math given to students in grades 4, 8 and 10. Several districts that have been high fliers now have a significant number of schools listed as in need of improvement.

In Lincoln, an affluent suburban community, four of the town's seven schools are classified as in need of improvement, including both the high school and the middle school. In South Kingstown, three out of seven schools -- including the high school -- are listed as needing improvement, and in rural Burrillville, three schools out of five fall into this category.

 

[Bichon Barb]

Just a thought, do you think that states, such as NY, IL and CA, which have big cities and a lot of the poverty, crime and other negative things that come along with big cities, are more likely to have lower scores? This would explain why states such as VT and NH have done well. If this were the case, then NY is doing pretty well over all (as I have always suspected). Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and not all districts are doing well.

 

[Minnesota!]

LOL at manchurian!!

California just doesn't even know what they got themselves into electing Arnold, do they? Hopefully he is not basing everything on his famous-ness!!! They will be in worse shape then they are now!!

CA - LEARN FROM MN!!!

 

[manchurianbrownbear]

I don't believe Jesse believed he could win the election in '98 when he got in. I think for him it was all about changing things that annoyed him (personal watercraft restrictions, license tab fees...) and after he won, it was great way to make a lot of money. Hopefully Arnold has enough money that he'll stay more interested in being the Governor than in selling his name.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

#8! Both for Iowa (where I went to school) and Wisconsin (where DD will go and DH went.) I think that's pretty good.

 

[DocRafiki]

I'm just glad to see LA above MS, unlike last year, which I'm sure was a miscount. I just can't imagine anyone except maybe AL being below MS (and it wasn't even AL!). Poor them (states below MS).

 

[Montana Minnies]

#4 Montana, I can't believe we finally made the top 10 list !




"Montana Minnies"

 

[Micca]

Hey #15 isn't so bad. That puts us in the upper half. I think

 

[swatts1]

My poor state is #48, and I'm happy it isn't 50th. My husband and I both attended college (and he went to Dental School) in the south and I think its worse now than it was then. We returned here a few years ago and my 2 girls were mostly educated in Virginia. The oldest is a senior at Vanderbilt. My youngest daughter finished her last 2 years of high school here and now attends an in-state college. We have a long way to go in Mississippi.

I don't know what the answer is, but I sure hope it comes soon!