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 Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Districts outranks all other districts in North Carolina for chances of student success. Children of college-educated parents tend to perform better academically than those raised by parents with lower educational attainment, and across the district, 73.8% of adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 30.5% of adults across North Carolina.
Students in the district also benefit from higher than average educational investment. The district spends $13,044 per pupil annually on its schools, compared to the state average of less than $10,000.
The four measures used to determine the best school district in every state were the child poverty rate, the teacher-to-student ratio, per-pupil spending, and the share of adults with a college education. All data came from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics.
State | District | Enrollment | Annual per-pupil spending($) | 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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