Massachusetts Schools Ranked Best in America

Photo via iStock/monkeybusinessimages

Massachusetts public schools were ranked the best in America—just a scant few hundred years after the first one was established here in Boston.

The Bay State tops a new ranking compiled by personal finance social network WalletHub. Four other New England states also cracked the top 10: Connecticut (No. 3), Vermont (4), New Hampshire (6), and Maine (8). Rhode Island, on the other hand, ranked 28th.

To compile the ranking, WalletHub compared school systems using 17 different metrics across two dimensions: school quality (pupil-teacher ratio, average SAT and ACT scores, dropout rate) and school safety (disciplinary incidents per 100,000 students, youth incarceration rate per 100,000 residents). Massachusetts took top honors in both categories.

Rhode Island had the fourth lowest incidence of bullying, while Vermont and Maine had the first and third lowest pupil-teacher ratio, respectively. Massachusetts and Connecticut tied for the highest average ACT scores, while Maine had the fourth lowest SAT scores.

You can check out WalletHub’s full report here.