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A little surprised about this one...109th out of 150 in this survey on the education levels among the US's 150 largest metro areas. Scored last among all SC metros, below Charleston, Columbia and Myrtle Beach.
A little surprised about this one...109th out of 150 in this survey on the education levels among the US's 150 largest metro areas. Scored last among all SC metros, below Charleston, Columbia and Myrtle Beach.
This is very surprising. There's a lot of high paying jobs requiring advanced degrees in this area. Especially wouldn't think Myrtle Beach would be above us.
Bet the numbers would be different if Anderson were not counted. Ann Arbor wouldn't be at the top if they folded in Detroit. It's all about where they draw the lines.
When you look at the methodology, this ranking isn't surprising.
The quality of our education system overall, and the attainment gap surely drug Greenville metro down in scores.
Methodology
To identify the most and least educated cities in America, WalletHub compared the 150 most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, across two key dimensions, including “Educational Attainment” and “Quality of Education & Attainment Gap.”
We evaluated those dimensions using 11 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest educational attainment and quality of education. For metrics marked with two asterisks (**), we used the square root of the population to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.
Finally, we determined each metro area’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.
Educational Attainment - Total Points: 80
Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a High School Diploma or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with at Least Some College Experience or an Associate's Degree or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Graduate or Professional Degree: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
Quality of Education & Attainment Gap - Total Points: 20
Quality of Public School System: Double Weight (~4.44 Points)
Note: This metric is based on GreatSchools.org’s ratings of U.S. public school systems.
Average Quality of Universities: Double Weight (~4.44 Points)
Note: This metric is based on WalletHub “College & University” rankings Report.
Enrolled Students in Top 973 Universities per Capita: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric is based on WalletHub “College & University” rankings Report.
Number of Summer Learning Opportunities per Capita**: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Racial Education Gap*: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric specifically measures the difference between the percentage of black bachelor’s degree holders and the percentage of their white counterparts.
Gender Education Gap*: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: This metric specifically measures the difference between the percentage of female bachelor’s degree holders and the percentage of their male counterparts.
Education Equality Index Score: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
Note: The Education Equality Index (EEI) is a comparative measure of the achievement gap between students from low-income families, as measured by participation in the free and reduced price lunch program, and their more advantaged peers. The EEI compares the proportion of students from low-income families who are proficient on a state assessment to all students across the state who took that same grade or subject level assessment.
*Additional context: In metro areas where women have an advantage over men and blacks have an advantage over whites, we gave extra credit compared to the metro areas with no gender-based/racial inequality.
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, GreatSchools.org, Education Cities.org, Yelp and WalletHub research.
When you look at the methodology, this ranking isn't surprising.
The quality of our education system overall, and the attainment gap surely drug Greenville metro down in scores.
I agree. If you look at the overall ranking of SC schools (almost always in bottom 5 in any ranking), this isn't surprising. Columbia will be higher due to the sheer number of USC grads sticking around in the area. Myrtle Beach is a little surprising, but essentially ranked about the same.
I never understood what the problem is with SC schools.
I know a ton of people who went to SC schools that got accepted by good colleges and obtained careers in challenging professions. I know SC people who didn't go to college who make a good living.
This seems like significant evidence that the SC school system hires good teachers.
I wonder what 'uneducated' people think when they see studies like this in which they are presented as a negative attribute for a metro.
These rankings obviously can't be taken as gospel, but they are a good general indicator. There's obvious college town bias, aka Ann Arbor, Tallahassee, Durham, Madison being so high, and there's the fact that it's metro-based, which isnt always accurate.
If you go that route, Greenville and Spartanburg are split, San Fran and San Jose are split, Raleigh and Durham are split, LA and Riverside are split, etc so it skews things. So good general or base ballpark, but not gospel.
In terms of just raw educated population, DC or the Bay Area is the real #1. In terms of elite education opportunities #1 would be Boston. Take out the "college counties" and those are the 3 that are in fact at the top of that list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downtown27
Bet the numbers would be different if Anderson were not counted. Ann Arbor wouldn't be at the top if they folded in Detroit. It's all about where they draw the lines.
You mean Laurens. Anderson brings down Greenville less than Berkeley and Dorchester bring down Charleston.
Greenville County's bachelor degree rate is 32.9%. To compare with similar counties, Knoxville is 35.7% and Greensboro is 34.5%. All 3 were ranked between 100-109. Take out Anderson, Pickens, Laurens it still wouldn't get any better than 100 on that particular ranking, and that's assuming you didn't kick off the "dragger downs" of Knoxville and Greensboro.
Just for the record, I know people with no degrees who are millionaires locally. Means nothing. Just means you can land a job for one of those entrepreneurs. ��
They are comparing apples with oranges. You don't compare big cities like Raleigh - Durham with Greenville, SC, Mauldin and Anderson. Come on! LOL. Also the liberals which typically have attained the highest education levels are more apt to be attracted to bigger cities with the amenities only big cities have.
What amenity does Raleigh Durham have that Greenville does not other than a NHL team.
It is interesting to me when people try to associate education with specific political viewpoints.
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