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That’s because, in today’s knowledge-based economy, nothing is more
important to companies than the ability to find and employ an increasingly well-educated
work force. In fact, it is so important that more and more companies are looking
overseas to find the workers they need to compete in today’s global economy.
No longer do those companies that employ cutting-edge technology automatically
look to the United States when establishing new facilities that rely on brains
rather than brawn. In fact, according to Dan Griswold of the Cato Institute,
28 percent of the workers in the United States with Ph.D.s doing research are
foreign born.
That’s not to say that the U.S. economy is doomed to failure. Far from
it. The sheer size of America’s educated work force, combined with a business
climate fueled by our system of economic and political freedom, means this country
will probably dominate the world economy for years to come. What it does mean,
however, is that not everyone will share in this bounty.
In fact, it’s safe to say that those communities that can offer businesses
a large pool of well-educated workers will most likely prosper in the future,
while those that cannot will not.
Put another way, communities with substandard schools will find themselves increasingly
left out in an economy that is increasingly reliant on smart workers.
]That’s why the local school system is so important. It is the schools
that prepare a community’s future work force, and the degree to which they
succeed will go a long way in determining whether that community will be able
to attract and retain the type of companies needed to provide its citizens with
good paying jobs and provide the local government with an adequate tax base
that, in turn, will enable it to provide the types of services its residents
have come to expect. For businesses looking for the best place to expand or
relocate, knowing where to find the best educated workers is a critical element
in the site selection process.
That’s why Expansion Management magazine, for the 13th year in a row,
has conducted its Education Quotient™ ratings of secondary school districts
nationwide: to provide our readers with a basis for comparing the type of work
force they are likely to encounter in various communities throughout the country.
How We Picked the Districts
This year’s Education Quotient (EQ) includes all high school degree-granting
secondary school districts in the United States with an enrollment of at least
3,500 students. In all, we evaluated more than 2,800 districts nationwide.
Because we began collecting data in the spring of this year (prior to the end
of the 2002-2003 academic year), we used the 2001-2002 school year as the base
year for our study.
How We Evaluated
the Districts
As in years past, a district’s EQ rating consists of three major categories.
The Graduate Outcome (GO) index, the most important component of the EQ, attempts
to measure the results of the district’s educational efforts in comparison
to other districts across the nation. The GO consists of the district’s
average college board score — ACT or SAT — as well as its graduation
rate.
The primary function of our schools is to educate, and college board scores
are one way to compare how much students in a particular district learned. While
there may very well be other, better tests taken by high school students, those
tests are generally limited to a particular state or states and, consequently,
are not comparable nationwide. The reason we use college board test scores is
because they are still the only common test that high school students around
the country take.
The GO also includes the district’s graduation rate. Because there are
dozens of ways to calculate a district’s graduation rate — most districts,
not surprisingly, use whatever looks the best — it was necessary for us
to establish our own definition in order to ensure comparability. Therefore,
we compared a district’s 11th grade students in the fall semester of 2000
with the number of students who graduated in the spring semester of 2002.
The armed forces have long used graduation from high school as a predictor of
future success, not because it means that high school graduates are rocket scientists,
but rather because it demonstrates that they finish what they start. This is
a highly valued characteristic among employers, particularly as unemployment
rates decline and the labor market tightens.
Because it goes to the heart of what our public schools are all about, the
GO is by far the most heavily weighted component of the EQ. The second category
is the Resource Index (RI), which attempts to measure a community’s financial
commitment to public education. It includes such things as per pupil expenditures
and the student-teacher ratio, as well as the beginning and average salary of
teachers.
The final category is the Community Index (CI), which looks at the educational
and income levels of the adult population. It is primarily used as a benchmark
for sociological observations and accounts for only 5 percent of the overall
EQ score. This category includes the percentage of the adult population in the
district with at least a high school degree, the percentage of the adult population
with at least a college degree, the average household income in the district
and the district’s childhood poverty level.
In calculating the final EQ score, each school district was compared against
the other 2,800 districts (i.e., ranked 1 to 2,800) in each of the components
(i.e., college board scores, graduation rates, per pupil expenditures, etc.)
in order to come up with a ranking for that component. The components were then
grouped together in their appropriate category — Graduate Outcome, Resource
Index and Community Index — and compared against the other 2,800 districts
in order to come up with an overall ranking. These rankings were then converted
into percentile rankings — 99 being the highest, 1 being the lowest —
to show how that district compares to the other districts nationwide within
that category. These percentile numbers are shown for each district in the charts
accompanying this story.
A Few Interesting Observations
When it comes to our public schools, the political debate always seems to center
around factors such as class size, teacher salary and per pupil spending. This
debate has become even more heated during the past year, as state and local
governments have found their budgets in severe deficit.
As in the past three years, we divided the school districts we evaluated into
five “achievement” groups based upon their Graduate Outcome score
(that is, college board scores and graduation rates). The first group was composed
of the top 20 percent; the second group consisted of the 21st through 40th percentile;
and so on for groups three, four and five. In years past, we were not able to
distinguish any significant difference among the five “achievement”
groups when it came to teacher pay, class size, or per pupil spending. This
year, however, we did find differences, particularly between the top 20 percent
group and the remaining four groups, when it came to teacher salaries and per
pupil expenditures.
We’re not sure why this trend (which one would expect to find, but haven’t
in the past) suddenly appears in this year’s study and not in the previous
three, but perhaps it has to do with the fact the we increased the number of
districts — particularly smaller districts — in this year’s EQ.
In any case, we will keep a close eye on this trend in next year’s survey.
As in previous years, we also found that there is an almost one-for-one correlation
between those districts with the highest Community Index score — adult
education and adult income — and Gold Medal school districts. The “silver
spoon” effect clearly exists. This year, for the first time, we also compared
the average teacher’s salary in each district with the average household
income for that same district. What we found is that, in 53 percent of the 2,800
school districts in our survey, the average teacher’s salary was higher
than the average household income for that district.
What Does It All Mean?
One thing is for certain: The demand from business for well-educated workers
will continue to grow, and those companies will find those workers somewhere,
whether it’s in the United States or overseas. More than ever, companies
need employees who are, at a minimum, well-versed in the basics: reading, math
and science.
Unfortunately, test scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students nationwide in
reading and math are not promising. In truth, they are downright discouraging,
and something has to be done to reverse that trend.
Whether you look at it from a macro perspective — a shortage of educated
workers in the United States will cause businesses to move those highly paid
jobs overseas, thereby weakening our domestic economy — or from a micro
perspective — a child who grows up to be an adult who can’t read will
never enjoy the fruits of the American Dream — we as a society must do
a better job of educating our children.
We can no longer afford to ignore the problem, or to shrug our shoulders and
say that nothing can be done. We are also kidding ourselves if we continue to
think that simply spending more money will somehow fix the problem. In business,
when you encounter something that is not working, you establish standards, define
responsibilities, measure results and reward/punish as appropriate.
The same should be true for public education. There is no way to tell if the
“No Child Left Behind” program will succeed, but it does focus our
attention on identifying the problem. It also requires improvement in a variety
of areas on a year-to-year basis. It’s certainly a good starting point
for addressing a system where 28 percent of all eighth-grade students nationwide
cannot read.
Most schools are doing an adequate job of educating their students. Some are
even doing an exceptional job. But unless we come up with a way to improve the
achievement results of the “non-performing” schools, we are not living
up to our responsibility as a society, and our kids are the ones who will ultimately
pay the price.
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