New Rankings Say Illinois is a Pretty Good State to be a Teacher

With World Teachers Day coming up on October 5th, a new study says that teachers who've chosen to educate in the state of Illinois have made a good choice of places to teach.

In spite of what we've seen so many times with other state comparisons, Illinois has received some really outstanding grades when we're matched up against other states and the District of Columbia.

Personal finance site WalletHub does an outstanding job in crunching the numbers to paint a better picture of their findings. They looked at the following criteria to determine 2017's Best and Worst States for Teachers:

To help America’s educators find the best opportunities and teaching environments, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 21 key indicators of teacher-friendliness. Our data set ranges from teachers’ income growth potential to pupil-teacher ratio to teacher safety.

WalletHub's top 5 best states for teachers:

1) New York

2) New Jersey

3) Illinois

4) Connecticut

5) Pennsylvania

And, their 5 worst:

47) Florida

48) Mississippi

49) South Carolina

50) Hawaii

51) Arizona

As you can see, Illinois holds the #3 spot. Wisconsin is #21, Iowa has the #18 spot, Minnesota sits at #6, while Michigan is #12, Missouri is #16, Kentucky is #17, and Indiana hold the #15 position.

Illinois also holds the distinction of being #2 in teacher's highest annual salaries, and #2 in lowest projected teacher turnover.

Teacher-Friendliness of Illinois (1=Best; 25=Avg.)
9th – Avg. Starting Salary for Teachers (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
2nd – Avg. Annual Salary for Teachers (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
11th – Quality of School System
15th – Public-School Spending per Student
1st – Teachers’ Income Growth Potential
9th – Teacher Safety