Americans living in a red state are getting the best education even though the governor has been criticized for using classrooms for his culture war.
Florida topped the list for the second year in a row, as Governor Ron DeSantis has redesigned the education system by banning discussions of sexuality and gender and letting parents decide what materials are used.
While the laws have drawn criticism, a new report has found that Florida has the best performance in college readiness among children in preschool through 12th grade, and the state’s universities have a 74 percent graduation rate.
However, the state fell short in math and reading scores among elementary school students.
The other states that followed Florida were Utah, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Colorado.
Americans living in a red state receive the best education even though the governor has been criticized for using classrooms for his culture war.
“Florida is the number one state in the country for education,” DeSantis said last month.
“By focusing on core academic subjects and rejecting classroom indoctrination, we have become standard bearers for educational excellence.”
The classification was carried out by US News and World Reportwhich used 10 metrics divided into two groups: higher education and preschool through 12th grade.
Metrics included preschool enrollment, college readiness, reading and math scores, high school graduation rates, college graduation debt, college tuition and fees, educational attainment, and two- and four-year college graduation rates.
Florida had the highest rates of timely graduation at public universities offering two- and four-year degrees.
And those who attended four-year schools had the lowest average costs of tuition and fees: The average annual tuition is about $6,000.
When it comes to preschool through high school, Florida showed high scores in preparing students for college, helping them succeed in taking the SAT, ACT, or both.
The state ranked 12th in in preschool enrollment and ninth in high school graduation rate, but ranked 21st and 32nd in eighth-grade reading and math scores.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent the last few years redesigning the education system by banning discussions of sexuality and gender and letting parents decide what materials are used.
While the laws have drawn criticism, a new report has found that Florida has the best performance in college readiness among children in preschool through 12th grade, and the state’s universities have a 74 percent graduation rate.
‘Since Governor DeSantis took office, Florida has prioritized education by providing teachers with historic pay raises, ensuring students could return to in-person instruction after the COVID-19 pandemic, abolishing woke ideology. classrooms, eliminating Common Core and transitioning to a progress tracking system for accountability,” the Florida Department of Education said in a statement.
However, DeSantis’ move has allowed schools to take matters into their own hands.
The Escambia County school district, located on the Florida panhandle, removed dictionaries from its libraries over fears that students might look up words like “sex” due to restrictions imposed by governors on what can be taught in the classrooms. schools.
While Florida may top the overall list, an Arizona school was considered the best high school in America.
In March, the University of Florida laid off all staff in positions affiliated with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
The move, laid out in an administrative memo, was the latest in the state’s mission to reject DEI initiatives from public institutions.
US News and World Report published a separate report last month, announcing the nation’s top 100 schools out of nearly 18,000 eligible institutions.
BASIS Peoria, just outside Phoenix, Arizona, takes first place this year, moving up from 12th in last year’s rankings.
It serves fifth through twelfth grade students who are mostly Asian, with 70 percent Asian students, followed by 15 percent white and six percent Hispanic. Fifty-three percent of the students are men and 47 percent are women.
BASIS Peoria was closely followed in the rankings by Signature School in Evansville, Indiana, and Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington.
Schools are ranked according to five categories of various weights, including students’ college readiness, breadth of curriculum and mastery of state assessments.
The highest-ranked schools are those with the greatest number of students achieving exceptional scores on state assessments in math, reading and science.
