Houston Public School District ranked one of the Best School Districts in America

Houston Public School District has been ranked one of the best school districts in America.  Our district is ranked #362 nationwide and #15 in the state of Minnesota. The article below from alarms.org explains the factors used in this ranking.

"Ensuring that their children receive a good education is something few American parents are willing to compromise on. Since most cannot afford private schooling, families strive to place their kids in the best public school districts that their financial situation will allow.

While the debate over the importance and degree of funding necessary in delivering an excellent education has gone on for decades, nearly all experts agree that money is important. The schools that perform the best have plenty of it, and those that don’t typically under-perform in key areas. Revenue taken in by school districts is used to keep resources and curriculums up to date and allow schools to hire the best teachers available as faculty. There’s really no substitute for good funding.

Obviously another key factor in judging the value of a school district is the student body’s overall performance in math and reading tests. Enrolling your child in a school where students perform well on tests and get good grades will increase his or her own achievement through osmosis. Children and teenagers are highly influenced by their peer groups and competition between students to achieve top marks can be a very good thing.

Two intertwined criteria that also play an important role in a school district’s overall quality are dropout rate and poverty rate. Nobody wants their child to drop out of high school as it has been demonstrated that high school dropouts earn 200,000 less on average over their lifetimes than those who received a high school diploma. A school with a high dropout rate is not a place parents want to send their children.

Unfortunately, dropout rate is often linked to the level of poverty experienced by students in a given school district. Even if a school receives in a decent amount of funding, students can still struggle with test scores and grades if they experience a significant amount of poverty in their lives. While schools may provide adequate textbooks and other learning materials, poorer students are often deprived of basic needs such as proper nutrition and domestic stability that are essential to fostering positive academic performance. That is why poverty rate is also a determining factor in our ranking." [source: alarms.org]