placestats

US Counties With the Highest Learning Rates

2,043 US counties ranked by learning rate, from highest to lowest. First are Mellette County, SD (0.14), Bethel Census Area, AK (0.112) and Grant County, NE (0.103). The middle one of the 2,043 has -0.0165.

What this measures

How much children improve each school year, in grade levels, where 0 is the national average pace. This is the part that happens in school, and it behaves quite differently from the score level. Source: Stanford Education Data Archive.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 highest counties

RankCountygrade levels per year
1Mellette County, SD0.14
2Bethel Census Area, AK0.112
3Grant County, NE0.103
4Sierra County, NM0.0992
5Aleutians West Census Area, AK0.0969
6Kinney County, TX0.0942
7Juneau City and Borough, AK0.094
8Dakota County, NE0.0931
9Baylor County, TX0.0918
10Gosper County, NE0.0915
11Trinity County, CA0.0909
12Hansford County, TX0.0878
13Boyd County, NE0.0876
14Heard County, GA0.0876
15Gilmer County, GA0.0857
16Clay County, SD0.0837
17Caribou County, ID0.0833
18Webster County, GA0.0828
19Oscoda County, MI0.0825
20Thurston County, NE0.0821
21Monroe County, WV0.0814
22Perkins County, NE0.0811
23De Soto Parish, LA0.0801
24Sheridan County, ND0.0798
25Dyer County, TN0.0764
26Jewell County, KS0.0763
27Crook County, OR0.0738
28Gilliam County, OR0.0737
29Millard County, UT0.0736
30White Pine County, NV0.0728
31Mitchell County, TX0.0726
32Hitchcock County, NE0.0725
33Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, AK0.0717
34Cimarron County, OK0.0717
35Cumberland County, TN0.0711
36Knox County, TX0.071
37Crawford County, IL0.0705
38Forest County, WI0.0704
39McKinley County, NM0.0704
40Lincoln County, ID0.0704
41Wirt County, WV0.0703
42Mono County, CA0.0701
43Potter County, SD0.0699
44Madison County, TX0.0698
45Hood River County, OR0.0694
46Oneida County, ID0.0682
47Hudspeth County, TX0.0676
48Knox County, KY0.0671
49Burke County, ND0.0663
50Fentress County, TN0.0661
51Throckmorton County, TX0.066
52Phillips County, MT0.0658
53Cannon County, TN0.0657
54Rich County, UT0.0657
55Yoakum County, TX0.0655
56Holt County, NE0.0649
57Macon County, TN0.0648
58Terry County, TX0.0648
59Wheeler County, TX0.0643
60Doddridge County, WV0.0641
61Lewis County, ID0.0635
62Clare County, MI0.0634
63Camas County, ID0.0615
64Dawson County, NE0.0612
65Garfield County, MT0.0605
66Jefferson County, TN0.0604
67Archer County, TX0.0603
68Eureka County, NV0.0597
69Cibola County, NM0.0597
70Callahan County, TX0.0586
71Decatur County, TN0.0579
72Charlton County, GA0.0578
73Gallatin County, IL0.0577
74Zavala County, TX0.057
75Dawes County, NE0.057
76Ascension Parish, LA0.0567
77Beadle County, SD0.0564
78Marshall County, MS0.0564
79Union Parish, LA0.0561
80Oceana County, MI0.0561
81Wilson County, TX0.0558
82Jones County, SD0.0552
83Delta County, TX0.0551
84McCulloch County, TX0.0545
85San Benito County, CA0.0543
86Lyon County, KY0.0542
87Dodge County, NE0.054
88Sheridan County, NE0.0539
89Franklin County, TX0.0537
90Cheyenne County, NE0.0537
91Washington County, UT0.0536
92Love County, OK0.0533
93Obion County, TN0.0531
94Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, AK0.0526
95Grand Traverse County, MI0.0525
96Santa Cruz County, CA0.0523
97Lewis and Clark County, MT0.0522
98Grant County, SD0.0522
99Summit County, UT0.0521
100Natchitoches Parish, LA0.0521

More on learning rate

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.