These cities in New York and Pennsylvania have the worst school districts

(KSNF/KODE) — Every child is born to a unique set of circumstances. And it is these different social, familial, economic, environmental, and many other factors, that help shape who they become. While these conditions are countless, a handful of factors play an outsized role in a child’s development and the likelihood for future success, including academic success.

Whether or not a child succeeds academically can depend considerably on school quality. A student who falls behind in one school district might have excelled academically in another. And, It’s not always limited to the classroom — many of the strongest influences on a child’s future are in the home environment, and the resources a child may have or not have there.

The Niagara Falls City School District ranks as the worst in the Empire State. Per pupil spending in the distinct totals just $18,524, just above the $18,262 average in the Northeast. The student-to-teacher ratio is 20:1 in Niagara Falls, well above the New York average of 12:1.

In Pennsylvania, the school district at the bottom of the list was Greater Johnstown Area School District. The spending per pupil was $13,558, below the Pa. median of $14,175. The student-teacher ratio was also 15:1, while the state average is 13:9.

In the following chart, you’ll find the worst school district in every state, according to these four measures: Child poverty rate, teacher-to-student ratio, per-pupil spending, and the share of adults with a college education. All data came from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics .

Data Methodology

Data on per-pupil spending in 2019 came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances. Data on the ratio of students to teachers in the 2019-2020 school year came from the National Center for Education Statistics . Data on the percentage of children aged five to 17 living in poverty in 2019 came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program . Finally, five-year data on the percentage of adults 25 and over with at least a bachelor’s degree by school district in 2019 came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey . Only school districts with at least 500 students and at least three of four index data points were considered.

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