Grand Island received the magazine's second-highest ranking. Blue Ribbon districts rank in the top 25 percent nationally. With today's tight labor market, Downs said, having a quality, educated work force is important to communities seeking to attract companies. That's especially true for technology companies that offer the best jobs. The evaluation is based on graduate outcome, resource index, community index and overall index.
Graduate outcome looks at the graduation rate and college board scores.
Resource index looks at the community's financial commitment to education. Community index looks at the level of affluence and adult education in the district. The overall index, or Education Quotient, is the combination of the three indices. It is weighted to show greater importance to graduate outcome and the resource index. Post your thoughts in The Public Forum.