Sunday, November 1, 2009

State SAT scores and $ spent per student ranking

The "best and worst states" web site has some interesting information. It seems SAT scores are not related to the amount spent on each student per state.

stateSATranks2009[UNKNOWN]

State SAT Scores 2009


... Some states have low participation rates and arguably can tilt the field.  ...

Top SAT State Scores include Iowa, Wisconsin,

Minnesota and Missouri.  These States primarily have their students take the ACT test so their numbers may not be representative of the entire state.

The Worst States for SAT Scores include Maine, Hawaii,

South Carolina, Georgia and New YorkDC is also very low
... While the quality of education may be influenced by the amount of money spent, spending more money does not insure that students actually learn more. We found it interesting to note how money spent and SAT scores were associated.

... The highest spending state, Vermont, is rated 30th in SAT scores nationwide. The lowest spending state, Utah, gets higher SAT scores from their students and is ranked 20th above Vermont. Far less money, higher score.

The Best State (highest) SAT score comes from Iowa yet their spending of $9,977 per student is right in the middle at 25th and right at the national average of spending. The Worst State Sat score comes from Maine yet it spends the 5th most money in the nation.

With all the spending coming out of Congress, we might want to ask for more accountability on results. The various state legislatures, that are making spending decisions, clearly can not show that more money leads to better results. Check out our previous post on Best and Worst State SAT Scores

via Best and Worst States: Does Spending More on Education Work? State Rankings of Education Spending..

5 comments:

Yes Peggy, There is a Border « The PPJ Gazette said...

[...] In all fairness, Wisconsin only spends on average $12,000 per student in public education with yearly rates ranging from $8,000 to $19,000 per school district.The average teachers salary is only  $47,000 (those 100K Principal salaries really pull that average up) and they still manage to rank  2nd in the Nation on SAT scores. [...]

VigRoco said...

So, what you are really saying is that numbers can mean whatever you want them to based on presentation?

Christopher Miller said...

All Maine juniors have been obligated to take the SAT rendering Maine's comparitive scores completely irrelevant since 2006: http://www.maine.gov/education/mhsa/index.htm

Miguel said...

Is the SAT really a valid measure of our education system. What about graduation rates, grade point averages and if you ate using SAT numbers, how about showing the percentage of students in the state that actually take the SAT. Sure, this comparison says something, but its not really saying much is it? The issue of funding education in this country is much more complicated than two columns of numbers and values.

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