Best and Worst States: Recent Comments

Comment on Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?

2011-12-14T16:21:38Z

I'm a resident of Utah. Although Utah spends a large portion of the state's budget on education, Utah is also 50th at the amount spent per student. In addition, Utah has a higher than average number of students that attend college, and is in the upper quartile on SAT scores. Utah is very unique, and may not be the best example to build a hypothesis between state spending as a percent of budget and quality of Colleges and Universities.

Comment on Best and Worst States to Move To

2011-12-02T15:07:36Z

ILL is state where you can find jobs, but too much corruptions around and people must believe these politics. But if it is very bad situation here, why people don't move from ILL? If everybody move from here- what happened with taxes( can you beleive that nobody pay taxes? ) OMG! But why that must be people's problems- if politics play their games.... and made corruptions? I want to live queit life and people want the same thing too. So I am not surpriced about corruption, but I don;t think it can be stop- it like in some politics blood- you can't live if you don't do corruption. So sad ! And not good reputation for ILL.....So soon people start to move to diffferent states and ILL will be empty! Shame.....

Comment on Does Spending More on Education Work? State Rankings of Education Spending.

2011-10-31T16:34:41Z

Just want to try and help you see the fallacy of your logic ... New Jersey may rank 36th in the 2009 SAT score rankings, but it is tied for 3rd in the 2009 ACT score rankings. The point everyone is trying to make is valid - SAT scores alone are not enough to make sweeping generalizations about a state's academic performance. Your article makes a potentially damaging claim and is not accurately researched.

Comment on Does Spending More on Education Work? State Rankings of Education Spending.

2011-09-18T14:26:14Z

While using the SATs to compare the educational systems of different states may raise some questions about individual states, it does not do a valid job in comparing them. It is fundamental to start with a level playing field when attempting to compare different entities, which obviously is not the case with the SATs.

Comment on Best and Worst States for SAT Scores

2011-09-10T14:14:06Z

The statistics you quoted are worthless without context. Most southern colleges & universities use the ACT, rather than the SAT. Only students planning to apply to non-local schools take the SAT, which makes the scores look far better than the scores for a state like Maine, for instance, where everyone has to take the SAT according to Adam, above. The situation is probably the same for Utah. The figures sample the cream of the crop and are worse that worthless, because they present a false picture of reality.

The idea that rotting schoolhouses, underpaid teachers and over-populated classes are going to produce superior students to ones that graduate from adequately-funded school systems is not only counter-intuitive, but makes no sense, whatever. Rich people send their children to expensive private schools, not because they like to waste money, but because money can indeed buy a better education. Do you want to argue otherwise?

This kind of claptrap was once used to prove that the segregated schools in Mississippi were the finest in the nation because of the high SAT scores of its high school graduates. Of course, very few high school graduates ever took the SAT, even the ones planning to apply to a college.

Comment on Does Spending More on Education Work? State Rankings of Education Spending.

2011-08-04T23:03:36Z

This is excellent. Come out of hiding. No need to politicize. Don't fight the right, but run with it.

Comment on People Leave NY and Illinois for 32 Straight Years!!! People choose Best states with their feet.

2011-07-04T19:20:05Z

I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.

Comment on State SAT Scores 2009

2011-03-11T01:03:55Z

"E.g. when the SAT doesn't produce equal
outcome, it is a racist test. When groups average different on IQ tests
intelligence is therefore merely some social construct and doesn't exist
etc etc."

@vitun: Socioeconomic inequality falls on a racial line, and socioeconomic status is the strongest predictor of standardized test scores. Therefore, you cannot conclude that the ACT/SAT are racist. That said, according to FairTest, even when background is controlled for race there is some inequity along racial lines-- it is not huge, but it may indicate bias of the test.

I think a stronger case to make than that the tests are racist is whether they truly mean anything. A GPA is a better predictor of future college success than test scores, even between schools.

Comment on State SAT Scores 2009

2011-02-22T18:46:54Z

It's pure economics: Texas is large and populous so it orders so many text books that it can dictate the content. Smaller, less populous have to buy what's available. Unfortunately, The Texas Board is packed with ideologues and not educators.

Comment on Does Spending More on Education Work? State Rankings of Education Spending.

2011-02-22T17:51:05Z

SAT rankings are a notoriously inconsistent measure of student learning across the nation. Better to use the NAEP, which is actually geared toward national curriculum guidelines (i.e., what schools should be teaching, not what students need to know to get into college). Educational statisticians should know better.