Texas' rank in education. (Austin: how much, school rankings, universities)

[Longhornsfan87]

Just curious, but does anyone know where Texas ranks in education?

[Austinite101]

It's kinda hard to pin down, but usually between 25 and 40 in studies that try to measure relative academic prowess. So not very high. It's no MA or NY.

[Longhornsfan87]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

It's kinda hard to pin down, but usually between 25 and 40 in studies that try to measure relative academic prowess. So not very high. It's no MA or NY.

Not the best, but not the worst?

[Austinite101]

Originally Posted by Longhornsfan87

Not the best, but not the worst?

Definitely not the best, but not exactly the worst either. The rest of the country isn't exactly looking to Texas to fix the education system though.

[BstYet2Be]

Originally Posted by Longhornsfan87

Just curious, but does anyone know where Texas ranks in education?

You didn't mention at what level, so here are the latest 2011/2012 Texas high school national rankings from all the recent sources:
-- The Best Texas Schools for 2011-2012

For the college/university level, see:
-- Texas Top 15 Universities
-- How would you rank Texas' public universities and their respective cities?
.

.

[hoffdano]

Be careful looking at national rankings by state.

The stats the media likes to cite are usually primitive. If it is about spending per pupil or teachers salaries, they don't adjust for cost of living.

If it is about reading and math, it is not adjusted for demographics.

Massachusetts, which has a rep for great public schools, is not really much better than Texas when you compare demographic groups. Texas has a far higher proportion of Hispanics, who show consistently lower achievement. MA has a very low Hispanic population. MA's public schools are mostly white.

MA's white kids perform slightly better than Texas' white kids.
MA's Hispanic kids perform about like Texas' Hispanic kids
MA's black kids perform about like Texas black kids

But since over 74% of MA's K-12 population is white compared to Texas 37% or so, MA outscores Texas when the data is averaged.

There is a great deal of data, if you'd like to look at it, that shows increased spending doesn't automatically produce better results. You CANNOT simply look at the garbage data reported by most media sources (and politicians).

Start with state spending per pupil data, from the US Census:

http://www2.census.gov/govs/school/09f33pub.pdf

Examine, for whichever state you wish, national achievement data:

The Nation's Report Card - National Assessment of Educational Progress - NAEP
(I suggest looking at state mapping data for both reading and math)

I'll give you some examples:

Wash. DC - spent $16,408 per pupil in 2009
Mass - spent over $14,118 per pupil
Texas - spent $8540 per pupil

You might expect vastly better results in DC and MA, since they spend almost twice as much.

Guess what you find?

4th/8th grade reading
TX 219/287
DC 202/254
MA 242/299

4th/8th math
TX 240/287
DC 219/254
MA 252/299

DC has essentially the worst academic performance in the US, in spite of spending the 2nd highest amount of money.

You might conclude that MA has much better schools than Texas, perhaps comparable to how much more money they spend. But if you look at the data considering demographics, the results change. I'll show just 8th grade:

TX reading score/% of population
White 273/37
Black 249/13
Hispanic 251/46
Asian 280/4

MA reading score/%
White 279/74
Black 251/8
Hispanic 250/10
Asian 281/6

[Longhornsfan87]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Be careful looking at national rankings by state.

The stats the media likes to cite are usually primitive. If it is about spending per pupil or teachers salaries, they don't adjust for cost of living.

If it is about reading and math, it is not adjusted for demographics.

Massachusetts, which has a rep for great public schools, is not really much better than Texas when you compare demographic groups. Texas has a far higher proportion of Hispanics, who show consistently lower achievement. MA has a very low Hispanic population. MA's public schools are mostly white.

MA's white kids perform slightly better than Texas' white kids.
MA's Hispanic kids perform about like Texas' Hispanic kids
MA's black kids perform about like Texas black kids

But since over 74% of MA's K-12 population is white compared to Texas 37% or so, MA outscores Texas when the data is averaged.

There is a great deal of data, if you'd like to look at it, that shows increased spending doesn't automatically produce better results. You CANNOT simply look at the garbage data reported by most media sources (and politicians).

Start with state spending per pupil data, from the US Census:

http://www2.census.gov/govs/school/09f33pub.pdf

Examine, for whichever state you wish, national achievement data:

The Nation's Report Card - National Assessment of Educational Progress - NAEP
(I suggest looking at state mapping data for both reading and math)

I'll give you some examples:

Wash. DC - spent $16,408 per pupil in 2009
Mass - spent over $14,118 per pupil
Texas - spent $8540 per pupil

You might expect vastly better results in DC and MA, since they spend almost twice as much.

Guess what you find?

4th/8th grade reading
TX 219/287
DC 202/254
MA 242/299

4th/8th math
TX 240/287
DC 219/254
MA 252/299

DC has essentially the worst academic performance in the US, in spite of spending the 2nd highest amount of money.

You might conclude that MA has much better schools than Texas, perhaps comparable to how much more money they spend. But if you look at the data considering demographics, the results change. I'll show just 8th grade:

TX reading score/% of population
White 273/37
Black 249/13
Hispanic 251/46
Asian 280/4

MA reading score/%
White 279/74
Black 251/8
Hispanic 250/10
Asian 281/6

In other words, take those education ranking lists with a grain of salt?

[curtisc83]

I like rankings by metro.

Cities with the Most College-Educated Residents - Graphic - NYTimes.com

[BstYet2Be]

Originally Posted by Longhornsfan87

In other words, take those education ranking lists with a grain of salt?

That, too!

You really do have to look at - and understand - the methodologies used for each, which is why I included this for each of the different Texas national high school rankings I listed, since each accumulates the data differently and then ranks it based on their own given criteria.
.

[Longhornsfan87]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

It's kinda hard to pin down, but usually between 25 and 40 in studies that try to measure relative academic prowess. So not very high. It's no MA or NY.

Sorry to bump an old topic, but I heard some sites say we're 25 in education, and others say we're 47-48th. I tried googling it, but it only says we're 47th-48th in SPENDING for education.