Where are Georgia, Alabama ranked in quality, safety of school systems?

Georgia is 35^th and Alabama is 42^nd overall in a national ranking of education quality and safety released this month.

Massachusetts is at the top and Louisiana is at the bottom of “2016’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems,” compiled by personal finance website WalletHub.

WalletHub’s analysts used 17 metrics to rate the education in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to its news release. The metrics were divided into two categories, with school system quality counting for 80 percent of the overall score, and school system safety counting for 20 percent.

The metrics for quality were:

▪  Number of schools in the top 700 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

▪  Remote-learning opportunities through online public schools.

▪  Dropout rate.

▪  High school graduation rate for low-income students.

▪  “Bookworms” ranking, which is a composite of library visits per capita and the number of public libraries per 100,000 population.

▪  Student-teacher ratio.

▪  Percentage of licensed/certified public K-12 teachers.

▪  Standardized math test scores.

▪  Standardized reading test scores.

▪  Percentage of high school graduates who completed an Advance Placement exam.

▪  Average SAT score.

▪  Average ACT score.

▪  Percentage of high school graduates who completed the ACT or SAT.

The metrics for safety were:

▪  Percentage of public school students in grades 9-12 who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.

▪  Disciplinary incidents rate.

▪  Bullying incident incidents rate.

▪  Youth incarceration rate.

Georgia’s school system ranks 39^th in quality and 23^rd in safety. Alabama’s school system ranks 41^st in quality and 47^th in safety.

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Where are Georgia, Alabama ranked in quality, safety of school systems?."