Every child is born to a unique set of circumstances that help shape who they become. While these environmental conditions are virtually countless, a small handful of factors play an outsized role in a child’s development and likelihood for future success.

Whether or not a child succeeds academically can depend considerably on school quality. A student who falls behind in one school district may have excelled academically in another. By no means limited to the classroom, many of the strongest influences on a child’s future are in the home environment, and the resources available — or absent — there.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics, 24/7 Wall St. developed an index of four measures to determine the best school district in every state.

The Palo Alto Unified School District in California’s Silicon Valley ranks as the best district in the state for student success. Students in the area are far more likely than students in most other California districts to live in home environments with college educated adults — making them more likely to succeed academically. Nearly 85%% of adults in the district have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 33.3% of adults in California.

Palo Alto is also a wealthy area, meaning the district has a strong tax base to fund operations. Partially as a result, school spending in the area totals over $23,000 per pupil, compared to $14,035 across California.

The four measures used to determine the best school district in every state were the child poverty rate, the teacher-to-student ratio, per-pupil spending, and the share of adults with a college education. All data came from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics.

State	District	Enrollment	Annual per-pupil spending($)	Students per teacher	Adults with a 4-yr. degree or higher (%)
Alabama	Mountain Brook City	4,346	14,059	13	85.3
Alaska	North Slope Borough	2,195	36,416	13	16.5
Arizona	Sedona-Oak Creek Joint Unified	517	20,576	17	46.1
Arkansas	Fayetteville	10,334	11,084	14	49.4
California	Palo Alto Unified	11,992	23,038	N/A	84.7
Colorado	Aspen 1	1,670	19,901	13	66.1
Connecticut	Regional 12	683	35,082	9	57.7
Delaware	Brandywine	10,470	17,615	14	44.2
Florida	Sarasota County	43,111	11,595	15	35.4
Georgia	Decatur City	5,734	12,851	13	74.3
Hawaii	Hawaii Department of Education	181,278	16,132	15	33.0
Idaho	Blaine County 61	3,467	15,661	13	35.4
Illinois	Lisle Community Unit 202	1,421	27,166	12	50.1
Indiana	West Lafayette Community	2,411	11,487	16	70.1
Iowa	Gilbert Community	1,574	10,036	16	63.9
Kansas	Blue Valley Unified 229	22,783	10,500	14	70.9
Kentucky	Fort Thomas Independent	3,129	11,086	17	52.5
Louisiana	Cameron Parish	1,341	18,521	11	12.7
Maine	Falmouth	2,126	16,611	11	67.0
Maryland	Howard County Publics	57,907	16,084	14	62.6
Massachusetts	Cambridge	7,052	29,962	10	79.0
Michigan	Bloomfield Hills	5,470	18,614	14	72.5
Minnesota	Edina Public	8,510	12,813	19	73.2
Mississippi	Madison County	13,302	9,653	14	54.9
Missouri	Clayton	2,644	19,050	11	77.5
Montana	Frenchtown K-12s	1,325	9,929	14	33.3
Nebraska	Elkhorn Publics	9,857	9,672	16	59.3
Nevada	Pershing County	658	18,427	9	11.1
New Hampshire	Oyster River Cooperative	2,193	19,051	12	65.4
New Jersey	Mountain Lakes Borough	1,404	29,737	9	85.8
New Mexico	Los Alamos Publics	3,749	11,249	15	67.4
New York	Byram Hills Central	2,319	35,160	10	81.0
North Carolina	Chapel Hill-Carrboros	12,422	13,044	14	73.8
North Dakota	Fargo Public 1	11,514	14,327	13	40.5
Ohio	Orange City	2,047	24,437	14	74.2
Oklahoma	Deer Creek Publics	6,646	9,048	18	58.9
Oregon	Riverdale 51J	637	15,330	17	82.7
Pennsylvania	Lower Merion	8,648	25,591	12	78.6
Rhode Island	Narragansett	1,290	21,254	14	56.7
South Carolina	York 4	16,081	9,576	15	49.7
South Dakota	Harrisburg 41-2	4,841	9,448	14	40.9
Tennessee	Williamson County	40,475	9,354	17	62.0
Texas	Eanes Independent	8,132	10,251	13	81.8
Utah	Park City	4,939	14,110	18	65.8
Vermont	Hartford	1,522	23,359	9	48.0
Virginia	Falls Church City Publics	2,620	19,222	15	77.6
Washington	Mercer Island	4,522	14,986	18	78.2
West Virginia	Monongalia	11,679	12,034	15	42.8
Wisconsin	Gibraltar Area	531	21,292	10	50.6
Wyoming	Teton County 1	2,881	18,496	12	57.0

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