This was a hard category to research. I'm glad I'm not a parent trying to find a good school system for my kids. Maybe it's easier when one knows the exact schools their kids might attend, instead of trying to learn about a whole county. I opted to research the entire county (when I could), knowing that inner cities often aren't the best measure for the educational opportunities and attitudes of a whole region. My data notes where I have only city info.
Anyway, I added this broad category of things to research not because I'm planning to return to school or send kids of my own to school, but because I value education and would prefer to live in a community where other people value education too. Turned out to be really hard to measure how much everyone in a county values education. So I turned to some statistics that I hope reveal both how educated the populace is, and how much support there is for education generally.
And finally, I looked into the quality of public libraries in all of these places, believing that people who value education in youth also value life-long learning, and free and easy access to knowledge. Plus, I really like libraries.
I was delighted to see that Cleveland, Columbus, Portland and Denver were the top 4 public libraries in the country!
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| Little Rock's Central High School |
High School Graduation Rate by County: County data from Patchworknation.org (2000). USA Today/EPE Research Center for primary city only (2006).
LA County: 69.90%. LA only: 44.2%. This is low.
Chicago/Cook County: 77.70%. Chicago only: 52.2%
Philadelphia County: 71.20%. Philly only: 55.5%
Columbus/Franklin County: 85.70%
DC only: 77.80%. (Montgomery County: 81.5%. Fairfax County: 82.5%. PG County: 67.3%.)
Denver County: 78.90%. Denver only: 46.8%. Low.
Portland/Multnomah County: 85.60%
Raleigh/Wake County: 89.30%. 82.2%.
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 81.60%. Cleveland only: 43.8%. Low.
Des Moines County: 85.80%
Asheville/Buncombe County: 81.90%
Annual Public Education Spending City Only: (Bestplaces.net) I have no idea if there is a correlation between spending per student and the quality of the education.
Chicago: $4,528 per student Surprisingly low considering Chicago's generally high cost of living.
Cleveland: $8,393 per student Surprisingly high considering Cleveland's general low cost of living.
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| One-room schoolhouse, Fredericksburg, Iowa |
Number of Students per Teacher in Public Schools City Only: (Bestplaces.net)
LA: 21.6 students per teacher. Is that a lot?
Chicago: 20.2 students per teacher. Ditto?
Philadelphia: 18.4 students per teacher
Columbus: 17.8 students per teacher
DC: 12.1 students per teacher. Sounds low.
Denver: 18.8 students per teacher
Portland: 17.5 students per teacher
Raleigh: 16 students per teacher
Cleveland: 12.2 students per teacher I suppose when 56% of the students drop out, that leaves a good student/teacher ratio behind.
Des Moines: 13.9 students per teacher
Asheville: 13.5 students per teacher
So all of that was about K-12 education. I also researched post-high school graduation information. I started with looking at how many colleges were in each metropolitan area.
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| Hendrix College, Arkansas |
Colleges: I couldn't be bothered writing down every single college in town; just some flagship schools an
LA: At least 6, including USC & UCLA.
Chicago: At least 12 in the area, including Chicago & Northwestern.
Philadelphia: A whole bunch, including UPenn, Temple & St. Joe's.
Columbus: Ohio State, plus others.
DC: At least 6, more in suburbs. Including my alma mater American U.
Denver: Several. Colorado U is 45 minutes away in Boulder.
Portland: A bunch, including Reed & Portland State.
Raleigh: NC State, others nearby like UNC & Duke, my other alma mater.
Cleveland: Cleveland State, CWRU.
Des Moines: Drake & Grand View. Iowa State in Ames is 45 minutes away.
Asheville: Several, including UNC Asheville & Western Carolina.
Percentage of elitist and indoctrinated snobs. Oh wait, that's what the pompous and anti-intellectual blowhard Rick Santorum calls them. I call them people age 25 and over with bachelor's degree or higher. Data from US Census, Patchworknation.org.
Los Angeles County: 29%, 25%
Chicago/Cook County: 33.2%, 28%
Philadelphia County: 22.2%, 18% This is low.
Columbus/Franklin County: 35%, 32%
DC: 49%, 39% This is high.
Denver County: 40%, 35%
Portland/Multnomah County: 37.5%, 31%
Raleigh/Wake County: 47.4%, 44% This is high.
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 28.2%, 25%
Des Moines County: 32.8%, 16% I'm not sure why those two numbers are so different.
Asheville/Buncombe County: 31.2%, 25%
Adult Illiteracy Rate Per County (2003): Patchworknation.org
Los Angeles County: 33.5% Ouch. Due to large number of immigrants??
Chicago/Cook County: 19.2%
Philadelphia County: 22%
Columbus/Franklin County: 12.8%
DC: 19.1%
Denver County: 15.5%
Portland/Multnomah County: 10.7%
Raleigh/Wake County: 11.2%
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 9.3%
Des Moines County: 7.5% That's very good.
Asheville/Buncombe County: 10.2%
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| OK OK, this is a bookstore, not a library. |
Quality of Public Libraries: Ranked by Hennen's American Public Library Ratings 2010 (haplr-index.com), which reviewed 7,930 public library systems in the U.S.
LA County Public Library: 9th percentile of libraries serving over 500,000 people. That's bad.
Chicago: No data.
Philadelphia Public Library: 33rd percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.
Columbus Metropolitan Library: 96th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. Rank #2. Wow.
DC: No data.
Denver Public Library: 96th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. Rank #4!
Portland/Multnomah County Public Library: 97th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. Rank #3!
Raleigh/Wake County Public Library: 64th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. I used to be a page at one of the Wake County libraries. Libraries are great places to meet other people.
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Public Library: 100th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. Rank #1! Wow!! (My hometown's Lakewood Public Library is in the 98th percentile for communities between 50-100,000 people. Rank #10.)
Des Moines Public Library: 77th percentile for communities between 100-250,000 people.
Asheville/Buncombe County Public Library: 64th percentile for communities between 100-250,000 people.
I was delighted to see that Cleveland, Columbus, Portland and Denver were the top 4 public libraries in the country!
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| Inside Evanston, Illinois's public library. |
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