How Colorado ranks on USA Today’s best states for education

DENVER (KDVR) — Researchers at USA Today Homefront analyzed 48 U.S. states and Washington D.C. for K-12 education, and Colorado ranked near the bottom of the list .

Researchers looked at data from the National Education Association, National Center for Education Statistics and other sources and focused on six metrics; graduation rate, students enrolled per teacher, average daily attendance, average teacher’s salary, operating public school districts, and public school current expenditures per student.

The rankings “correspond to the 2022 to 2023 school year, focus on public schools only and include COVID relief funding — which significantly impacted school funding figures,” USA Today said.

All states and Washington D.C. were included in the study except Oklahoma and New Mexico. New York, Massachusetts and Vermont topped the list. Meanwhile, Colorado was ranked at No. 45, followed by Washington D.C., Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

Colorado was one of 14 places where teachers are paid less than the state median salary. According to the study, Colorado had the second-highest negative difference, with the average teacher salary of $60,775 falling $11,185 short of the state median.

The area with the next highest negative difference in salaries was Florida at $7,112 less than the state median. Washington D.C. had the largest negative difference, with teachers making $21,348 less than the median salary.

Colorado tied with Nevada and Wyoming for the sixth-lowest graduation rate of 82%, followed by Alaska, Arizona, Washington D.C., Idaho, Michigan and Oregon. The national average graduation rate, according to the study, is about 87%.

One metric that Colorado fared well in was classroom size. USA Today said the ideal ratio is 15 students or less to one teacher, and the average classroom in Colorado has 15.2 students per teacher.

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